starstruck

Yesterday, I helped out my friend on a film. She was in charge of make-up and needed someone to help do hair. It was quite a bit of fun, actually. Normally I help with the art direction and set dec, but I got to curl a bunch of hair and style it so it could atleast pass for the 1930's which is probably one of my favourite style eras, so I enjoyed it muchly.

Some snaps:

You can find more in my starstruck set on Flickr!

I'm looking into getting an EF 50mm f/1.8 lens. Found one on amazon for pretty cheap, so I may just have to pick one up. From what I've seen, it takes beautiful photos of people and is a generally great lens for multipurpose photography. Shame it feels so flimsy though. Ah well, it's not like I can afford anything too fancy! Yet, anyways. ;)

material goods

The other day I got bored and decided it was time for a trip to Yorkdale and the general Orfus Road area near by (awesome outlet stores, holla). As I was passing by the Blacks Photography store near the subway entrance of the mall, I noticed they had a spring sale sign in their window and figured I'd go in and see if any cool lenses were on for less.

I didn't find any good sale lenses, but I found myself a lovely Soligor T170 heavy duty tripod for $29.99! It was marked down from $80, so I was quite happy about my discovery.

Afterwards, I ventured over to Fabricland on Orfus Road and found some amazingly cheap fabric for backdrops ($2/meter!), so I am now fairly well equipped for doing headshots and portrait type things. I picked up a nice light grey/off-white and a good deep/dark grey. Can't wait to try them out!

I'm going to meet up with a girl I met through Frosh Week soon to set something up. She's trying to raise money for her Up With People (http://www.upwithpeople.org/) trip, so I offered to do headshots for people and the money collected can go towards her fundraising. This way, I'll get some experience and she'll have more funds for her trip. Everybody wins!

I imagine I should probably get my business card printed soon. May indeed come in handy! Just need to find a place that'll do it for cheap.

special projects gallery

I'm in a fourth year drawing class, since the third year class of essentially the exact same design was full. We were given the opportunity to showcase some of our work in one of the university's galleries. I had three pieces shown. It ran from March 2nd-6th.

jaded
Originally uploaded by avalilly

girl with a swirl earring
Originally uploaded by avalilly

bikini of venus
Originally uploaded by avalilly

It's just a small space to show in, but any experience for the CV is good, right? I'm sure it's nicer for the work to be hanging in a gallery than rotting away in my $5 cardboard portfolio anyways.

I'm looking into getting a couple solo shows going. I want to expand on my modernized famous portraits series enough so I can atleast pair up with one or two other artists. Basically, I want to take famous portraits from way back when and apply modern day beauty/fashion trends to them as a lighthearted comment upon the frivolousness of our many ideas of feminin beauty ideals. Or something like that. Also, I have a thing for crazy squiggly light photos, so I'll probably give that a try as well. I'll elaborate on that another day...

play/pause

PLAY/PAUSE was a York University Undergraduate Visual Arts Students Association (VASA) juried art show. We ran it at Whippersnapper gallery in downtown Toronto from March 2nd-13th, 2009. My piece, "Untitled" (hands) made it in. The reception was held on March 6th, 2009 to much succcess. The place was packed! Here's some photos from the exhibition:

Overall, it was a wonderful show and a really good experience. I'm looking forward to doing this more often (talent and opportunities permitted)!

For more photos from this event, check out my Flickr set: Play/Pause!

birthday bouquet

birthday bouquet, originally uploaded by avalilly.

blue rose, originally uploaded by avalilly.

bluem, originally uploaded by avalilly.

The boy got me lovely blue roses for my birthday. I took so many pictures of them, but alas they never really opened more than this. Probably the combination of the cold air and the dye shortened their life span. They've dried nicely since then so I still have them. Such a gorgeous colour. ♥

I may make this into a triptych print for sale some day. People like flowers. Especially ones that don't need watering!

For more flower images, check out my Flickr set!

start

Hello Internet,

So I've finally been sucked into this little world of blog. I figure it'll take me a little while to build my online portfolio/webpage for my art, so a blog will have to do in the meantime. I'll probably use this as a place to dump some random highlights about my life, my artistic endevours, some progress pieces or simply things that I find inspiring.

Like music for instance!

For those of you who are fans of Damien Rice, you'll be familiar with Lisa Hannigan. She accompanies him in some of his studio songs, as well as on the road in many live performances. Anywho, it was recently brought to my attention, through The Colbert Report no less, that she has her own album now. It is magnificent. I highly recommend it. I'm so in love with it right now it's all I've been listening to.

You can check her out on her website: http://www.lisahannigan.ie/ or her myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lisahannigan if ye be interested. Oh, the Irish~


Anywho, check back whenever. I'll be updating with photos from recent exhibitions and whatnot. Also be sure to check out my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/avalilly/ for what is sure to be more recent updates, atleast on the photography front.

Til next time~