Well, it has been a long time since I’ve have posted, and that is because after I got back from the Sweden ski trip, I pretty much moved into my studio.

Think I’m kidding?  I had a toothbrush, toothpaste, mug, silverware set, food supply, and my slippers in studio with me.  If I could have figured out how to get an air mattress and a pillow, I would have.

my studio and then my desk. and the rat, who is the studio mascot.

I have completely lost track of what day and time it is, and I would try to give you a timeline of my last 10 days, but I honestly can’t remember.  I know that I was not home to my house before midnight, and I was not out the door in the morning later that 9.  The three days before my presentation was due, I got into studio early on Monday morning, stayed at a friends house in CPH overnight (where I probably got about 4 hours or less of sleep), was back at studio by 8:30am, left that studio at 6:00am Wednesday morning for a shower and an hour nap, and was back working in studio furiously until our deadline at 10pm.  And I hadn’t finished all that I had wanted to at this point, so I was exhausted and frustrated, and to make matters worse, I was trying to finish some last minute details at home, so I only slept from 2am to 6:30am.

my 1:20 scale model of the first floor, before and after details.

I had to be back in CPH at 9am Thursday morning for my first 3 and a half hour round of critiques, where I sat in on other students presentations.  Thursday night was the first time in a long time that I had been home for dinner, and it was so nice to just sit around and eat (despite the fact that I was exhausted).  Thursday night I slept for about 11 hours, and am still exhausted as I sit here writing this.  My presentation was today, though, and I actually got a really great response.  Could have been because I was one of the last to present and everyone was exhausted, but people were really impressed with how far I had come for this being my first studio.  So, good news, nobody dashed my dreams today or made me cry.

I should probably explain my project; in the last 3 weeks I have had to design an art gallery urban infill project in Kartoffelrækkerne (translated: Potato Rows) which is a housing development in Østerbro in Copenhagen.  We were supposed to mostly focus on space and design our project around 5 pieces of art; a Degas painting and sculpture, a painting and sculpture by Ib Geertsen, and Your Watercolor Machine by Olafur Eliasson.  Well my concept going into it was the spaciest thing ever; let’s just say it revolved around mathematics, movement, stillness, time, the middle way, equality of experience….. blah blah blah haha if you really care, ask and I will try and articulate myself better.  At any rate, I ended up with these pain-in-the-ass curvy lines within this geometric shape.  I’m too tired at the moment to give a full walk through of the building, but you can see sort of the idea in my 1:20 model (the big one) and as you circulated through the ramp and non-ramped space, you view the artworks in different contexts.

can you maybe see the shape of movement that emerged out of my design? and the impossibly dusty window.

Oh, and by the way, even though in my head I can already change this design 100 different ways, I am much less frustrated now (maybe because I slept??) but point of the story is, the process is really fascinating.  For those of you who have experienced me late at night, I am the biggest baby and fall asleep so early.  I cannot stay up late.  But the reason that I was drawn to this field is because I know that I am passionate enough about working with my hands and creating that I could be up for 24 hours and still have all the energy in the world and very little concept of time and the world around me.  Now we will just have to see if this specifically is right for me.

More pictures are down below… there is probably a lot more I could say, but I have to go finish packing now as I am leaving for a week long study tour to Sweden and Finland tomorrow morning at 7am!  So it will be awhile till I update and get in touch, and I am also not editing this post yet haha so excuse any spelling / grammar issues.