steph.a.leph

i am currently on cruise control and it’s really great! my show is done, i’m in to graduate school . . . other than some catch up work in my magazine article writing class, i can just enjoy spare time, enjoy my friends, and enjoy creating art for the sake of it.

let me catch you up on all that i’ve been up to, pre and post “fugit hora.”

the night after courtney’s opening (and the first night of spring break for me!) two of my best friends from home came down to visit. it was really exciting because my friend katy, an education major at millersville, hasn’t been to rowan since my freshman year! and it’s always fun when karina comes down . . . so we went out and had a blast! it was really fun to blend both worlds of friends.
and since we all love food, we made the trek to wawa! i don’t know what i’d do without wawa in my life.

oh, and before i go further: big j had a show of his paintings the week before courtney! at the encouragement of prof chard, the head painting teacher here at rowan, he had an inpromptu show of his progress in painting. i took photos of big j in front of his work to show the scale of how large he works.
this piece was inspired by type of mold.
this one is actually called “my size painting” as the canvas is 6′4″ by 6′4″. and, i think he’s smiling because he sold this work to a former faculty member! so awesome

anyhow . . . spring break was a nice, if short, break from my show prep. as i had written before, i celebrated my 22nd birthday on st. patrick’s day. since it was a monday, not many people could celebrate with me as most of my friends have full time jobs or went back to school! but i had fun with the few good friends who did make it.
i think this picture is so funny! karina always looks frightened and i’m not sure why.
this is my favorite photo of the night- when i busted in on the dj to play some awesome songs

when i returned from spring break, i drove down 322 to find that rowan had peeled the walls off of bosshart hall! bosshart, the former science building, has since been condemned due to asbestos. luckily for us scavenger art majors, we got to pillage the building for goodies before they gutted the building. i am now the proud owner of empty film spools and stacks of blank computer paper i can make books out of anyhow, before they put tarps over the whole thing, big j, his girlfriend, and our friend adam got to have an informal photo shoot:

on the 26th, i got to go on a field trip to new york city with my american art history class, taught by dr. adelson. it’s really nice having the opportunity to be able to go on school field trips to major art centers in the united states. this particular trip was to see the Whitney Biennial and a Jasper Johns show at the Met. as this is my fifth art history course at rowan, i’ve also been to MOMA, the Guggenheim, the Cooper Hewitt, and to the National Gallery in Washington D.C. i know that Dr. Hottle sometimes takes his students to the Brooklyn Museum or the National Museum of Women in the Arts too.

anyhow, we began our trip at the Met where I got see a piece by one of my favorite and most influential artists, Alphonse Mucha:

even look how the frame mirrors the curves of the image! so fantastic. after a quick stalker stop at mayor bloomberg’s nyc apartmentment (adelson loves his celebs!) we went to see the biennial.
the words at the top of the building are actually part of the show- they are an installation by Lawrence Weiner. the biennial was really fascinating. i’m not sure how the non-art students liked it, as a lot of it was installation and non-representational pieces. one of my favorites was a video called “Home 2″ by Olaf Breuning.

on that friday, the 28th, i participated in my first critical mass with big j and liz. i seriously had a blast- and it was so exhilarating! as i might have mentioned before, i ride my Schwinn cruiser all over campus. we have a small, but avid, bike community here at rowan. but philadelphia’s bike community is intense! and on the last friday of every month, they gather at 6pm at city hall to ride all over the city en masse. this particular ride lasted for two and half hours and extended from city hall to university city, from washington ave to spring garden. eventually, after the police helicopter and cruiser intervened(apparently NOT a normal occurence), the group got split up and we rode our separate ways. but the weather was perfect and there were so many unique people there, some with some pretty crazy bikes! i want to go back every month

and so, after a lot of work and an equal amount of play, i settled in for a solid couple of days of all work and almost no sleep in order to get my show together. i began putting my show up at 8pm on tuesday the first . . . i finally finished it on thursday morning at 9am. it took WAY longer than i had anticipated- and the installation i had planned didnt even work out! but, i finished in time for my opening and i’m proud of what i put together i got a lot of rave reviews from both the faculty and my peers. here’s what my show consisted of:

this is a very tiny image of the whole room, pieced together by digital photos i took. if you can tell, i painted a two color mural with my show’s title on three of the walls. on the fourth, i hung approximately twenty framed prints in a salon style format. in the center of the room, i set up pedestals featuring the different books i’ve created.
this is the main wall, with my artist statement in the swirl.
this the pedestal featuring hand printed and bound florence guidebooks i had made. the flowers were the perfect touch- my former italy roommate and good friend caitlin sent them to me the day of my show all the way from colorado! it was such a great thing to wake up to

my actual opening was a success- somehow, i managed to pull off a huge food assortment (thanks to some friends and family! thank goodness!) and some people came down from home that i hadn’t seen in just about forever. this photo is of me with my print teacher from last semester, carol schottenfeld. she actually went to penn state for her graduate degree as well and she was a huge help in the whole graduate school application process. if there was anything i learned from that experience, it was to ask people who had gone through it- it eliminates most of the unnecessary guesswork.

a funny pic of dr.hottle and angela. i gave my camera to friends, which resulted in some strange photo discoveries the next day haha.

one of my best friends megan came down for the opening. she’s a global studies major at ursinus and she’s one of my biggest supporters

after my opening, i gathered the remaining friends and we headed to landmark to celebrate! and, perhaps in honor of my show it was 80s night! definitely saw some hilarious getups:
bri and jay pulled out the 80s shades all night long.

if i was awarding prizes, courtney would have taken first place in the women’s category . . .
and brandon, our neighbor across the way in townhouses, would have gotten top prize in the men’s category. i mean, how many people can actually pull off a fake mullet? haha.

the next day was first friday for april. big j, anna, dana, and i went up specifically to see current tyler grad student, and former rowan undergrad Jerry Kaba’s MFA exhibition. his show was a sculptural installation based on the idea of an interactive, manmade world.

dana had fun riding the blue rolling carts through the aisle.
a close up of the flowers he created.

after his show, we roaming around olde city for a bit, stopped and got some awesome pizza, and visited the animal sanctuary.
i had to pet all of the cats, of course.

the next day, the friends who couldn’t make it on thursday night to my opening came down to see my show and come to the “jock jams” party my apartment threw. what a fun time! it was so nice to have fun with my friends and not stress about my show. we all got dressed up in ridiculous sports outfits and danced all night to jock jams volume 2-6!

liz was the unofficial adidas representative.
big j in his famous tshirt haha.
this picture is so random and candid haha

all while i was in the studio busting my butt for my show, my friend courtney wyman was working right along with me for her upcoming show, which went up the week after mine. we spent a lot of time tossing around ideas, dancing to music, and taking food breaks haha. anyhow, when her show went up this week, i felt relieved for her; we had worked so hard together, it was like this great triumph that we’re all done! here’s some images from her opening:

here’s happy courtney, patting her best friend jen’s head. jen flew from her americorps position in california to be there opening night!

her show, called “wide eyed” was a combination of printmaking, installation work, bookmaking, and stop action animation videos. these are her lightning bugs, part of her installation.

when most everyone has cleared out.

so. now it is mid april. yesterday, i had a meeting with a woman from berlin, nj who is interested in having me photograph her wedding. i met her and her fiancee yesterday and we came up with solid plans- she’s my third wedding job of the summer although wedding photography isn’t something i want to do the rest of my life, it’s good experience and a great portfolio builder. i’m really fortunate that mike and erica gave me the headstart i needed with their wedding last summer!

in other news, i got a letter in the mail from rowan a couple of weeks ago telling me that i was awarded the “parthenia j. vandermark creative arts award medallion,” which is apparently top honor in the art department. and, as i found out recently, it means i have to speak at my graduation ceremony! i’m really excited that my professors have that much faith in my and my work, but i’m kind of nervous about speaking. i’m sure i’ll be writing more about the speech later . . .

through some correspondence with a woman from near my hometown, i’ve secured a spot as a volunteer teaching elderly residents a weekly art class this summer! i’m actually really excited about the opportunity- it’ll be great experience and practice, will look awesome on my resume, and i’ll get to meet a whole bunch of new people from all different backgrounds. and, the best part: i can teach anything i want!

this coming week is submissions for the juried student art exhibition. last year i got in and won honorable mention. maybe i’ll get a prize this time? also, next month i’ll submit to the gloucester county community center show again. last year, big j took first prize! and i sold one of my pieces, which was awesome.

also on the agenda: westby prom preparation! more to come about that . . .

anyhow, hope you enjoyed a month’s worth of catch up! lots of exciting times to come

it’s easter and i’m at rowan prepping for my show. i have most of my work framed and ready to go so that whatever other works i get done this week will just be gravy it hasn’t really hit me that my show is happening- i mean i’ve been planning for it for so long, but it doesn’t seem real. and i’ve actually planned ahead for the most part, which is unusual- i’m the procrastination queen! anyhow, i’ll try to write this week if i have some time. i’ll leave you with the poster i printed last week:

i am twenty two today! hurray!

greetings!

i’ve been slacking on my blog duties, but right now is probably the busiest i’ll be all semester. only two weeks until my show goes up! i’m really working to create some new pieces that will be a surprise come time for my show. most of westby has seen the majority of my portfolio, so i want people to have a reason to attend! (other than the food assortment- which, after courtney’s mom set the bar, i now have to step it up)

today i bought some more frames for my work. with printmaking, it’s nice to have the option of not framing your work- you can still present it in a nice manner without the expense. however, i tend to be a messy worker and i get smudges on the edges of my paper :-/ i decided the most affordable route for good presentation is framing everything myself. thank goodness for AC Moore! and fortunately for me, there’s two within 15minutes from campus.

i finally sent out to get my showcards printed. this is the cover design:

i’m actually going to make a second design to print posters and plaster all over the internet. i am really excited about my show, despite my stress level increasing. if i’m going to put so much work into it, i want to be able to publicize it and share it with everyone. i ordered from printsmadeeasy.com as recommended from a friend. they should arrive on thursday and hopefully they’ll look great!

on march 2nd, i went on a trip to the philadelphia zoo. it was sponsored by the rowan student programmers, the student organization that sets up the extracurricular events on and off campus. i think they do a great job of coming up with a fun mix of activities. this trip in particular was such a deal- only $10 for like 5 hours of the zoo. if i went on my own, tickets are around $25 per person, not including transportation or parking! my favorite part was the monkey house (where oddly enough,we ran in to one of our professors there with her kid) and the petting zoo- i got some funny pictures of the goats (and their boogery snouts)

big jason’s favorite part was riding the wild boar, since the hippos weren’t out.

that week, i ended up heading to landmark with my roomies and friends.

Briana is the girl on the left- she lives on the third floor with me. She’s a graphic design major who i’m sure i mentioned before- she graciously set up my website for me and as i also mentioned, she’s the head of the student publication The Gallery. Right now is crunch time for her- the graphic design group exhibition is approaching fast, as well as the printer deadlines for the Gallery.

Angela is the girl on the right- she lives on the floor below me. She’s an art education major who’s active with the education groups on campus. In a couple of weeks, she will be attending the NAEA conference in New Orleans along with Lauren, the fourth member of our townhouse. Also, she is a student ambassador for rowan- she wears the tan sweatshirt, knows an absurd trivia about rowan, and gives campus tours.

on friday, march 7th i headed up to philly with liz and big jason to support our friend jay snyder. he had a solo show at first friday upstairs at the khyber. it was the first time the khyber participated in the first friday festivities. his work looked SO nice hanging on the exposed brick walls! he set up a polaroid area to take photos of many of the friends and family who came out. unfortunately, the weather was kind of icky that night- but we used it to our advantage:

when jay asked us to go around the area and promote him, we did just that. adam soaked the posters in a puddle and we stuck them on Lineage’s (RIP) empty storefront.

we also went to the FUEL gallery and strategically placed his cards. (cool factoid: the FUEL space was previously the house for Real World Philadelphia!)

afterwards, we went back to the khyber to enjoy the unofficial westby reunion. it was so nice how many friends from past and present came out to support jay’s endeavor. that’s one thing i like a lot about rowan and westby in particular- it’s a small community of good friends who really come through and support you. this photo is one of my favorites from the night- it’s big bryan demonstrating a squegee to adam

after the khyber, we came back to rowan to hit up a diner. i’m not going to lie- the diners in south jersey really are a shame. it was after midnight on a friday night- at home in pa, i know of at least three 24hour diners within 10 miles from my house. however, glassboro is a different story. first we went to Liberty Diner in Clayton. CLOSED. then, we trekked to Geets on Black Horse Pike. CLOSED. instead of trekking up to Runnemeade to the Phily Diner (yes, with one “L”) we ended up at the local Denny’s. i think we were the only sober people in the place. although this picture of liz would lead you to believe otherwise:

and, as we discovered- the lumberjack special comes complete with plaid.

anyhow, other good diners to check out (but not at 2am):
-the Harley Dawn in Hammonton.
- Angelo’s in Glassboro.
- Harrison House in Mullica Hill

This past Monday, i ditched my life and headed up to philly to see Justice at the Electric Factory
with Angela. That’s one thing I love about Philadelphia- the variety of music venues. The Electric Factory is pretty large and ended up being the perfect location for a crazy dance party!

Wednesday the 12th was Courtney’s opening reception.

It was a huge relief for her- she’s been literally a zombie living at westby for two weeks straight trying to finish and get everything together. she barely finished by 6pm, the time people started arriving. in the end, it all came together and looks great! she included some polaroid transfers, serigraphy, an installation involving marbles fashioned to look like acorns, and my personal favorite- her abstract photo compositions:

another highlight: after weeks of living in sleep pants and sweatshirts, she showered and wore a dress!

anyhow, i’ve already written a novel. i’ll leave you with some more pics from random times at westby.

about once a year, facililities comes in to westby to fix something. the other day they chose room 208.

this is my bike with big jason’s bike. many of the westby kids have bikes on campus. we’ve decided to form an unofficial bike gang dubbed “The Bikings” by Dr. Hottle.

basketcase. crackerface. sexy lace. yes, we have strange imaginations.

a fun portrait of big jason that i took- i think it really shows off his personality. and big-ness.

tomorrow is my birthday! exciting every year, my birthday falls on spring break- which is very convenient for me!

it’s saturday night already- the last couple of days have been insane! it’s nice to slow down and breathe for a night.

tuesday was a great work day. i created a poster for this year’s Gallery publication. my roommate briana is the editor this year and decided to revamp it. it will be sort of an “art box” with goodies inside- including a poster.

anyhow, i’m really excited about how it came out; although the imagery is in my style, i included some interesting textures that really make it one of my favorite pieces. it will definitely be in my senior show! so that was tuesday night’s project. i ended up staying at westby until 4am with liz and courtney- that night, we put up a show featuring work and installation pieces. luke and eric included some prints they’ve done for print II, courtney finally created her pill bottle work, christian had some unique imagery. i especially liked liz’s beer bottle piece:

this is big jason’s piece:

this was my corner- i hung pretty much all the works i included in my solo show back in january.

everything i hung was polaroid imagery- in particular, lifts and transfers. here’s a closeup of one my favorite polaroid lifts, entitled “pine street”

after a long night of getting work done and having strange conversations with Liz and Courtney, i slept briefly, got up at 9am (early for me!) and went to Philly . . . to pick up Amie and Grant from the bus station!!! Who are they? Well, Amie was one of my roommates when I studied in Italy and is one of my best friends. Grant is her boyfriend, who also studied at Santa Reparata with me. They both live outside of Los Angeles and go to the University of Redlands. Their spring break is way early, so they came to the east coast to visit Grant’s brother in DC, me in Philly, and sightsee in NYC!

it was so fantastic to see them. i havent seen Grant since 2006 and Amie since this past summer, when we visited our other roommate Caitlin in Colorado. i picked them up in Chinatown and we went to see the art museum and the Ben Franklin Parkway. here’s how beautiful the day started out to be:

we hiked it all the way up the parkway to see the love statue. we took an obligatory tourist shot, of course:

since they were only in town for one day, i tried to give them the grand tour- they got to see most of the city, but not really in depth. after the parkway, we got cheese steaks at Pat’s- mostly for the experience rather than the quality. but they both liked their very first cheese steak experience after that, we headed to south street to do some browsing- Amie got some vinyl, i got a Ratatat CD. from there, we went to Northern Liberties and went to a store i knew Amie would die for: Art Star. And, as i expected, she went nuts. Our final sightseeing stop was Olde City. The flurries and wind made it very uncomfortable, so we headed to dinner at Osteria. It’s a nice Italian restaurant that won “best restaurant in philly” in 2007- i had seen a photo of their pizza and knew i needed to try it. it certainly lived up to their reputation, although their portions were on the small side.

we headed back to rowan after dinner to go to Joe’s art show in the downstairs gallery.

he really did a great job- he showcased the graphic design and photo work he’s done for bands like Deathkiller and One Win Choice.

afterwards, we celebrated joe’s show and amie and grant’s visit at Landmark. a bunch of my friends from pa came down and we had a great time! here’s me, amie, and karina in the bathroom being silly:

the next day, after dropping amie and grant back in philly to catch the bus to NYC, i helped set up an mini art showcase for an event at the student center that night. the event programmers at rowan had artist Spencer Tunick out for the evening to talk about his naked installations. despite running into a couple of roadblocks, the show went off without a hitch!

so the big news in my life right now: i got accepted to graduate school! my mom called me on Wednesday:
“Honey, I got a thin envelope from Penn State, and I didn’t know what that meant so I opened it and . . . you got in!!” i’m still kind of in shock. i found out the next day that i didn’t get into Tyler, which was kind of a bummer, but somewhat expected. so now i’m kind of at a crossroads- should i say yes to Penn State and see how it goes? or should i wait to apply to Tyler again and perhaps never get accepted there? this week i hope to sit down with some of my professors to sort through the clutter in my brain.

. . . but today is not that day. i am a serious night owl- i love to work in the studio until the wee hours. if you were a fly on the wall at 2am in the print studio, you’d most likely find me dancing around like a fool to strange music and singing at the top of my lungs- in addition to working on whatever project i’m on at the moment.

the last two weeks have been a strange balance between my social life and schoolwork. i finished my 13 color print and started and finished another print that has been on my mind for weeks. both of them will be featured in my senior exhibition. i FINALLY finished printing the pages for a book i’m making about florence. i had made one copy for Liser before her departure, but havent gotten around to the others for my show. tonight i began stitching the pages together in this weird solution i came up with- a combination of an accordion and stitched binding.

also, i began work for my photography independent study with Keith Adams. last semester, i took a polaroid techniques class with him and loved everything about the media. the semester before that, i took a non-silver photography class with Sandra Davis, a fantastic photographer who specializes in techniques such as cyanotype, van dyke brown, gum bichromate, etc. as a result, the independent study i developed is a blend of the two classes. below is one of the gum bichromate prints i made a year ago in Ms. Davis’ class:

i took this photo in the kitchen of my italian apartment in fall of 2006. i miss that space and my gorgeous roommate who so graciously posed for me!

one very exciting update: my website is now up and running! my awesome roommate briana made the magic happen as an assignment for her web design course with Jen Thwing. i drew up the designs and such and she composed the flash elements, etc. i owe her big time- she posted it just in time to send to the grad schools i’ve applied to!

big jason says he likes my blog because of all of the photos i post. i tend to agree, so here’s some new photos for your viewing pleasure!

this is my nook next to my desk in the print studio. it’s a nice reminder of some of my friends. one thing i love about the print studio: how it looks so alive. throughout the years, people have drawn, written, printed, and painted all over the walls- the whole room is this fantastic work-in-progress. my little nook is just a snippet of what the rest of the room looks like.

the other day, i hung out for a bit with eric and liz.

as i probably mentioned before, liz is my former roommate from freshman and sophomore year. she’s a talented ceramics sculptor. here’’s a photo from her senior exhibition from last semester:

tonight, i was in the studio with my friend joe. he’s a phenomenal graphic designer who specializes in design for musicians. as patti smith is coming to rowan in one week, he designed a special poster for the event. patti smith herself saw the design and loved it, so joe screenprinted a special copy just for her! here’s a photo of the complete print:

he was so excited- it was the first time he’s done a multicolored print.

i’ll leave you with something i designed on a whim this weekend. it started out as a tshirt design and ended up as a cut-and-pasted graphic.

that’s right . . . it’s valentine’s day! not very exciting.

anyhow- it’s been a long week. i’ve been shooting for completing a print a week in preparation for my senior show, but week one has set me behind schedule despite spending every night in the studio until around 2am at least. however, it has been worth it- yesterday i finished all thirteen colors and it looks beautiful! i’ve included a photo of the original drawing- the print will be unveiled at my senior exhibition and i don’t want to spoil the surprise!

i’m really proud of this piece- i’m working to develop more dynamic and detailed pieces for my show. i’m also focusing more on my style- extreme art nouveau-esque curves and bold colors. this piece in particular is inspired by one of my favorite artists Alphonse Mucha. I had never known much about him until I traveled to Prague during my study in Italy- they have a fantastic museum there dedicated to his life’s work.

last night i threw together a piece for my friend’s boyfriend’s birthday coming up this weekend- he’s a big fan of helicopters, both real real ones and toys. (and he’s 24! scary haha)

one of the things i love about screenprinting- it’s so versatile. i can make enormously complicated pieces, or simple functional works. the above photo shows the progression of the print- when coming up with imagery, you have to think in terms of separate colors.

last thursday, i took a break from printing and went to “Rowan After Hours” with Liz and Big Jason.

i had never been and wanted to check it out- it’s new this semester. basically, it’s a drinking alternative hosted on thursday nights at the student center. they have all sorts of activities: dancing, weekly performances, free food, crafts and activities, video games, etc. it ended up being a lot of fun! we watched a fellow student perform a fake talk show, played rock band, and dominated wii tennis. it was a really nice break from westby!

this week Big Jason has his installation show in the “black room”, one of the gallery spaces at westby.

he’s been collecting printer paper from all over campus for months now in anticipation. when rowan decided to close bosshart hall, we went in and raided it of all their paper. it definitely came in handy and the show came out great!

it just goes to show that although rowan claims to recycle, it might never be enough.

it pours through the ceiling.

that is one downside to arting at westby- the leaky ceiling.

what a great weekend!

saturday my roommates and i threw an “ugly sweater/groundhog day party” and it was a great success! a lot of my friends from home came down to join in the festivities- it was a fun blend of rowan and pa. everyone wore ridiculous outfits, many of which came from the local goodwill. looking back, we took so many silly pictures!

corn! . . . huh?

joe has the poofiest hair of anyone i know.

she said she was hungry!

RAs on the stairs.

when i first came to rowan, i was disappointed about the social activities. despite what all of the friendly tour guides said about student life, the reality seemed to be that the only way to have fun was to go greek. although greek life is certainly predominant here, i’ve come to find that it’s not the only option. i am fortunate to have grown close with many people in my major. my freshman year, i made a solid group of friends in my dorm hallway. in all, i’m in a good place- i have a great balance of school and friends without being greek.

i live in the townhouse community now, which is so nice- i’m really fortunate to have this housing my senior year. the townhouses are three floors, with four single bedrooms. i share the third floor and its bathroom with Briana, a graphic design major. the second floor is home to Lauren and Angela, two art ed majors- just one big happy, artsy family! haha.

Lauren is also the RA for a section of the townhouses. If there’s anything that i regret not doing at Rowan, it’s becoming an RA. I tried for this semester, but unfortunately res life decided that i wasnt a competitive candidate as a senior. becoming an RA is a great leadership position that has many benefits and responsibilities. as a third party, i’ve noticed that it’s a very close knit group of friends as well. however, it is a job that does take up a lot of time- but i think it’s definitely worth it.

the last two days i’ve been up to philadelphia.

one of the things i was concerned about when i came to rowan was the surrounding area. however, philly is so accessible it’s great- it’s a 20 minute drive, a 20 minute PATCO trip, or an hour bus ride directly from campus.

yesterday, i went to the ICA in University City. i went to see the puppet exhibit- and it was entirely disappointing. i was hoping for something along the lines of “avenue Q” and it was very far from it. typically, ICA is one of my favorite places to see contemporary art in Philly and it rarely disappoints.

today, i went up to Pearl on South St. with Big Jason.

the majority of the required art supplies for classes are available at the bookstore. however, for better prices, it’s easier to go elsewhere or order online. for me, Pearl is like art mecca- three floors of gloriousness. however, i love Utrecht equally as much

after the trek to Philly (not to be confused with “the city!” i’ve been reprimanded for saying such- nothing can replace NYC) we rode our bikes out to a house on 322 that has sheep!

the weren’t very friendly, but worth the visit.

tonight my roommates are throwing a party for groundhog day and i’m pretty excited- some of my friends from home are coming down to visit!