Hitting the Streets

This week has been pretty relaxed for the most part. It's still pretty snowy, but it's finally been starting to thaw out around here, and it's about time! Unfortunately the word on the street is that more awful weather is headed our way on Tuesday, so you can bet I took advantage of the gorgeous weather this weekend while I still could. 

Monday was President's Day so once again... classes were cancelled. I never thought I would appreciate how very few times Iowa State cancels classes (side note, they also did that this week, someone said that was the first time that had happened in six years but I'm still fact-checking that one...). I was planning on heading in to Mashable to get some more hours, but as luck would have the office was also closed and I'm that girl who was silly for thinking they would still be open and unlocked. And my door key was still in my wallet I had yet to claim... So I finally ran to get that taken care of and while I was in the city I figured it was about time for a fancy NYC haircut I had dreamed of. To GroupOn... awaaaaay! My forehead was looking a little naked so I put on some serious coverage. Nobody wants to see that, you know.

On Thursday I had the fabulous opportunity to attend Meet the Greeks, a step-show and showcase of all the fraternities and sororities here at NJCU. It was crazy cool and for the most part it just reiterated my own sense of how incapable I am of dancing. It was neat to see how Greek Life compares to what we have back at Iowa State. Clearly the population is a lot smaller, yet more diverse in Jersey. There seems to be a lot of support for the Greeks out here though despite the numbers, and that's really fun to see in events like these. Can't wait to see more from them in the next few weeks as all the pledges get announced and initiated! 

Class updates, let's see here... Monday class was cancelled. Wednesday in Digital Media we began working on our first official animation project due Wednesday. It's two separate thirty second animations portraying Love and War using only coins. Thursday, I had Art Therapy and we had a demo of the puppets we'll be doing for our Midterm Project. It sounds kind of cheesy off the bat, but the idea is to make high quality, sophisticated puppets and really apply yourself to the project. Thinking critically throughout the process, you build a doll to capture and display your cultural and personal background. Typically I have Fridays off from class and work and it's just a great day to get everything done and out of the way just in time for weekend adventures. However, with Monday being a holiday I figured I'd get a few more hours in. As luck would have it, Friday night a few of the Mashable interns hit up Happy Hour and I still managed to make it home before the bus terminal got scary. Kudos to me. 

The impromptu Sign-enstein with all of my supplies
and cute little stool. Everything fits in my backpack!

Saturday I had a group practice with my Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity group via video conference (seriously... what did people do before the invention of the internet?), and after that I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for... *drumroll*... Caricatures on Times Square! It took a while for me to hunt down a printing service that actually had the resources to handle a 24x36" sign for my newly-acquired A-frame. While at an art supply store I found a street sign outside that I thought would be perfect for this new venture, and after asking the man if they sold anything similar to it since the closest thing I could find were over $200 easels, he said he'd give it to me for twenty dollars. SOLD! The only real problem was carrying that bad boy the four blocks to the train station, getting on to the bus, getting into my dorm... And then repeating the process. I'm telling you, I'd be jacked out of my mind by now if it wasn't for all this New York pizza. Besides the point, I called Staples and they confirmed if I brought in the file they could print it for me right there and I'd be on my way. Or so they said... after managing to carry this sign what felt like across the world, the best they could do for me was email me when the sign was printed. Which could be a few days. I was a little upset, but figured I'd wait and then on top of that print the largest sign they could give me on the spot and just sort of jimmy rig something that might work. I was disappointed it wasn't the grand debut I had envisioned... but the night still went pretty well.

I managed to snag a spot between two spray paint artists, nestled behind those giant iconic signs in Times Square and between that and Broadway. I managed to grab a lot of people on their way from and headed to shows. I'm really thankful I was smart enough to scope out the prices everybody else was charging. If I did my back home rates, I definitely would not have been nearly successful. Who would have guessed caricatures would be so much cheaper out here though? I drew a couple from Boston as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (complete with an NYC manhole cover, because I think I'm a hilarious genius) and a little girl on her way to see the Lion King with her dad! I was in the middle of drawing a family who had just seen Pippin, and chatting away with another couple waiting to have theirs done too, when an NYPD officer tapped me on the shoulder and told me to head out after this drawing. I was terrified! I'd looked it up online and didn't need any sort of license to sell art, and even confirmed with police officers in Times Square a few weeks ago, and I sat there stunned while he explained, chuckling, that everybody just had to clear the streets at 8:30 as a safety precaution. What a relief... So though I set up at 6pm, and was only there for two and a half hours, I made bank and let it go. I'll be back soon. No worries. 

The view from my spot between two spray paint artists!