Oh Hai Princess

This past week was so crazy and so amazing, and to be honest I can’t believe it was real. I got the opportunity to participate in an international project where 77 young artists from 7 schools in poland, germany, belgium, france, and ireland came together for week-long workshops in different facets of art leading up to a big exhibition held at the castle of Namedy, Germany. I took the photography workshop, because this was actually the form my photo class was in this semester for Trier. There were also workshops in ceramics, architecture, land art, metal sculpture, visual art and illustration, performance and media. Everyone stayed in hostels in the town over called Andernach, and we took a 5 min train every morning to Namedy to work on our projects at the castle all day, and came back every night to chill. For some reason I was really outgoing all week, and ended up meeting almost all of the 77 student and it was so much fun and some of my french came back to moemory and i also learned a few things in polish!


Communication the whole week was extremely interesting because it played so many good and bad roles. There were a few kids who didn’t talk much at all and after a few drinks weren’t so afraid to speak in english with me, and then there were kids who were extremely talkative and funny with little mistakes. I didn’t really get much feedback for my project at all, which was the worst part of the language barrier, but it was also good to have such a new experience of being so free in what I chose to do and how I did it. I learned that I didn’t really care for it and I work the best with rules, but good times anyway! My old roommate Silke was incharge of the whole thing, with another guy Dirk, and I was so impressed with them. It really was an amazing opportunity and I was so happy to get Silkes text offering me a place at the castle!

Here are a few of the photos I had in my final presentation. I hung 7 frames from a tree in the courtyard with my photographs in them, and left one frame open. It was the biggest gold frame, and I set up a small table infront of it with 3 disposable cameras for anyone and everyone to take pictures of themselves through the frame. It went along with the theme of the whole project which was “transforming memories.” My concept was based on how the too-good-to-be-true reality of being in a castle and being surrounded by so many artists and creative energy was just so surreal and didn’t really feel “real”. This was reflected in my photos by taking real things and making them abstract and dreamlike. And I was happy because I didn’t have to touch them in photoshop minus the red one where 2 pictures were put together. Here they are, hope you like em!


Germany DOES have peanut butter and microwaves


It’s been such an exciting week in Trier for me, and it’s only wednesday. I moved into my house on Sunday, and my roommates cooked an awesome dinner for me complete with spargles, crepes and hollandaise sauce 🙂 mmmm. It’s also stopped raining and the temperatures are picking up! I’m sitting with my windows wide open right now listening to the glockenspiel of the cathedral, and the people walking below chat over coffee and little kids screaming and playing. Typical..

views from out of my window
Yesterday was my first class (not counting the German class) and I had Type Design with Mr Hogan. Luckily He had already prefaced the project in the meeting we had with him on Monday, because when we showed up at 10, It was the hardest thing ever to stay awake and try to pay attention. Every now and then he would catch us up to speed and turn to the four of us and ask us what we thought about it—terrifying. I don’t speak in class much at home and I would probably throw up if I had to here.. But he did give us a ten minute break where we ran across the street and grabbed our caffeine filled drinks of choice, and when we got back we got to watch a movie in English!
About America!
And it was sooooo embarassing!
The movie discussed the importance of the Eames’ lounge chair, and the history and politics of the 50’s—the era it was invented. No worries. I wrote down very important points the film made, and here we are:

1) America did not care about politics during the Cold War. They “went into a political amnesia” and instead focused on designing their cookie cutter homes with these lounge chairs and wearing wrinkle free dresses.

2) The lounge chair was perfect for watching media programs and drinking an ice cold Budweiser©.

3) “The Lounge Chairs price is as high as its leather is black.”

4) America has “a culture as cool as its jazz” which was seen through the Eames inventions, and especially they’re star: the Lounge Chair!

This film was so cheesy and hard to watch in a room full of German students who have probably not been to America yet. We all laughed when it first started—mostly out of awkwardness, but more importantly to let the kids know that we thought it was a little redicuclous. Also, I got real uncomfortable at one point when the British narrator was telling about the nazis and what was going on in Europe at the time. Oh well. Now we only have to come to small critique groups every other week so no more of that.. Our project is to choose a designed object (such as the Eames Lounge Chair) or we can
choose a Person/Artist and then design a logo for them using a typeface that we design. From those few letters used in their logo, we will design the rest of the alphabet for an almost complete Typeface! The two idea I’m going to start sketching with are the classic high wheel bicycles, and then Jose Fernando Borges, a Brazilian printmaker. I’ll start sketching and then see which one I think has more potential, but I love the contrast of the bicycle with the thin and thick of lines, and the contrast in sizes seen with the wheels, and with Borges his wood block prints are very bold and playful, with lost of different textures and fun characters. We’ll see…

Last night the neighbors from upstairs came over for a dinner party, an older couple in their 40s or so and I think perhaps the landlords. I had already known this woman as the “wine lady” who had frequently trapped my roommates upstairs drinking wine with her for hours so I was prepared when they walked in with 4 bottles for dinner. Vera once again cooked an awesome meal from her hometown in Bavaria, Ulm. She made Bubenspaetzle (meaning little boy penis haha, but they were inch long skinny gnocci that she shallow fried), Sauerkraut with pieces of ham (vegetarian-style for me!) and Apfelstrizie for dessert. And before dessert, the husband instructed me that a real German meal has to have schnapps in between the courses in order to be able to finish the meal. So after the group finished the 3 bottles of red wine, we all took a shot of pear schnapps (gross) and then followed it up with some apfelstrizie and white wine. I followed the group to tanja’s room where the smokers could smoke, and we just talked and hung out until midnight. Or at least that’s when I couldn’t stand the smoke anymore..

It was fun to see people come out of their shell with their english speaking for me. It feels like it’s getting easier for people when they start getting to know me and I guess begin caring about me and wanting me to actually take part in the conversations. More and more times in the night someone would turn to me to help translate what was just said, and at the end of the night much of the conversation was in english. It was so much fun trying to listen to funny stories, and traditions, and listen to old German bands, and even talk serious about religions for a bit. I may have lost a year from second hand smoke, but definitely worth it haha.