The Country Club at the Highlands First Newletter

I recently started my new job at The Country Club at the Highlands in Chesterfield. I had worked with my boss at my previous job at Richmond Country Club since 2008, so we have known each other for a while. He really helped me out with employing me with my new job, so I returned the favor of making him a newsletter for CCH. It was actually my idea, because this club did not already have one, so I had some freedom over what I could do. I did do the first one as a favor (though I did get a free dinner out of it), but I will be compensated for the next one. I did do some of the photography in there, though for the golf course images were already taken by a professional. I took my boss's photo, the chef's photo, the desert, the couple with the blonde hair and the couple with the teal shirt, I set up a photo shoot for the wine image, and I took the Sunday Brunch photo, and these were taken while multitasking serving (I just whipped out my camera and asked to take a photo). The only photo I took the time to set up was the wine photo. My boss took the other photos of the patrons and food with his camera phone, and I made the levels and colors better in Photoshop with them.

So, this was kind of a rush job, so it's not as polished as it should be, but it had to be rushed out to meet the March deadline and I didn't know I would really be doing the March issue till three days before it was to be sent out. I intentially made parts sans serif (because that's not something you really see in Country Club writing) and other things really cursive (because that's what you do regularly see in Country Club lingo). Next time, I'm going to make things a bit more organized and straighter and more grid like when it comes to the This Week and Next Week sections. Overall, for the really short time I had to do this, I'm pleased, though I would LOVE some critique to make the April Newsletter better.

I'm going to work on my photography more and actually setting up better photo shoots, and now that I have a studio, I don't have to set things up in my cramped bedroom.

So Much To Do

Just some quick things. I've been really busy just trying to make ends meet. I am doing some design work for the country club where I work, and I've got a lot of other things keeping me busy, but I don't want to say much until I actually have something to show. They include a painting going to be hung in a restaurant and a comic I'm collaborating on with a friend.


I've been rereading Art and Fear, it's always a very comforting and supporting read about art careers. I'm also reading Art Theory: An Historical Introduction, I decided I need more art theory in my life, so far it's a little boring, like reading a text book...

Business Card

So here is what I have for the front of my business card. I think whenever I upload images to blogspot, the colors lose some saturation. Anyway, I like the way it looks, I do want to get rounded edges when I actually get them printed. BUT, should I have anything on the back of it? I feel like I should, but then again, I want to keep it simple. If I have anything on the back, it could just be my logo again...but now that's just repetitive. Maybe I should have the rest of the cookie on the back? If so, I would need to make the cookie a little bigger to have a bit more on the back...I really don't know. I need some suggestions.


I've hit a bit of a slump. I've been working all the time and not making enough to make ends meet, so I'm pretty sure that's why. I'm going to rework some of my older stuff. I really want to redo the front and back cover of Three Cups of Tea. That, and I have some old sketches that I want to push more and see where they go.


If I started a series, maybe that would get my gears moving. I noticed that whenever I walk out at night, I like to look inside windows. No, I don't go and peer inside, but when I'm just walking down the street and I see a really pretty interior that's glowing from the outside, I think that's really lovely. Not even at night either, I like seeing glass jars on window sills from the outside, how curtains are draped, it doesn't really matter what it is as much as it is being viewed from the outside. Anyway, just a thought.

Just a Little Something Last Night

My favorite thing to wear in the summer. I really miss summer.

juliahodgesart.com
YEAH!

I need more content on it though, I'll be working on that after graduation though. I gotta focus on them FINALS!

TRAVELING.

My boyfriend, Mike, and I have been traveling recently. We went to DC about three weeks ago, and we went to New York City last weekend. We were originally going to look at grad schools, but they don't give tours on the weekends and I only have the weekends off. So we went to a lot of galleries.

We went to The Corcoran in DC to see the John Singer Sargent exhibition that focuses on his early work in the south of France. It had his paintings and sketches and studies, it was so great. It amazes me that, even early on, his craft with paint was amazing. Whenever I think of Sargent, I think of rich Victorian ladies and their kids, portraiture is what paid his bills. It was nice to see what he really liked to do, at least early on, which was ship masts and regular people working on the beach. Very different and more intimate.

Also at The Corcoran, we happened to stumble upon Edward Burtynsky, a very prominent photographer. We saw his series entitled 'Oil'. I have never been so amazed by photography, and I happen to be very hard to please when it comes to photography. He documents the industrial world and looks for the massive. He photographs a sign of the times that everyday people will never see. It's so interesting. He reminds me a lot of Rackstraw Downes. The museum was closing, so I only got maybe seven minutes to see his exhibit. I'm making a second trip up soon to appreciate and consider his work more.

We went to The Whitney, the MOMA, and The Guggenheim. My main reason for traveling up to NYC was to see the work of one of my earliest idols, Georgia O'Keeffe. I love O'Keeffe, there is nothing that can change how much I love her work. I did make some observations though. I couldn't tell if her canvases were made awkwardly or that they were made by art restorers to be the way that they were. You could tell when the wood planks would pop out and make a crease on the canvas. Did she not make her canvases well? I can't think of that to be intentional. Make they were made well at one point, but over time the wood warped or needed extra support. Was was really cool was that I saw a lot of things that I've never seen before, which is odd to me because I've own maybe 5 large books of her work. It was a joint show, it had some of her husband's, Alfred Stieglitz, photography of her. I never thought armpit hair could be made to look beautiful and sultry, but Stieglitz, with a liberated woman as O'Keeffe, made it so.

The MOMA wasn't exciting. The same old pop art stuff. Enough said.

This was my first time in the Guggenheim, and I was blown away. When I walked in, I couldn't help but think of the "The Cremaster Cycle" by Matthew Barney (which I need to watch again, it's amazing). Also it was my first time being inside anything made my Frank Lloyd Wright, also a major plus. We didn't know, however, that there was a Kandinsky exhibition there. It was also amazing and well put together with everyone having headphones and listening to many curators giving their opinions (for free). All of the paintings were exactly what I expected them to be (amazing) except they were a lot larger than I thought they would be. We saw more than his paintings, however, the museum also exhibited works on paper that he did when he taught at The Bauhaus. I had never seen these before and they completely blew my mind. His oil paintings had a lot of loud color, but with his paper work, it seemed much more focused (because it was more on the line of cubism than his abstractions in oil). His colors were muted and complementary and his compositions were very simple and elegant. Absolutely awesome.

Okay, I think that's enough for one post.

It's Been A Long While.

So, I haven't been drawing as much as I want and need to. I can feel myself getting rusty and that's so frustrating. I'm in this rut, it's called really boring and tedious classes and my job, and some other things that always get in the way. So, I need to find that golden balance of better time management...or just more time, or less sleep (which I find hard to sacrifice).

Awesome news, though. I'm moving in with Dan, Cody, and Sean, and my room is going to be this huge basement which will be my room AND studio...because it's just that big!! If you cut this basement in half, one half is bigger than my current room...awesome! My current room is too small to do big paintings in (and there's no other place in my current apartment to do and store wet paintings in except my room), so it'll be nice to have an actual studio. I plan on doing some fashion and photography work in addition to my illustration and painting work, so I definitely need more space. And, I'll be living with two artists and an art business guy. AND...it's cheaper...and I'll have a huge yard to garden in...and a huge kitchen to have dinner parties in...and awesome roomies (my current roomies are awesome too).

...I need to make a better logo...I never liked the one at the top of this blog...looks like a cheapo insurance agency's logo...