Report, year 01

Before I am going to Austria for three weeks, I thought it would be nice to write a little report about my first year in New York. I will definitely return to New York to do my second year to finish my MA in illustration, and I am glad to say that I never doubted my decision to come here.

School is over; all projects have been handed in. In the end, it wasn’t even super stressful and my “old trick” of starting early with everything has proven to be a life saver in the end. I finished the historical overview of my thesis about monsters in illustration, produced three pieces of work for the digital painting class and painted an oil painting of a monster as my final project in the oil painting class. It surly has been all about monsters for me this year. I suppose I just love the topic (NO, really?!). Next year will be much more stressful than the first year – at least that’s what it looks like from the schedule they gave us. But I am eager for what comes, and very curious what the classes will bring. I am especially curious about the writing class we’ll have in July – I can’t wait to practice fictional writing, which is very important for the scripting of my graphic novels.

Below: A digital/traditional hybrid - finally painted with acrylics.
Below: My second peice for the digital painting class.


I also want to recap the theater project I was in: Basically it made the month of April and May the best months of my stay here. I loved the rehearsals, I loved the people who were involved and every single show was a success. I had forgotten how much I liked silly and goofy acting. I finally got a grab on some pictures of the last show (thank you Mathew Brown!) to give you an impression. I also want to sum up the characters I played in the show: 1. I played the head of a two headed monster, Ladi-Dadi and got killed by Ozam the Barbarian within the first 5 minutes of the play. 2. I played an innocent townswoman, who looks at the Queen funny – result: Beheading. 3. The bearded townsman has 10 seconds on stage before he is condemned to death by the queen. 4. I play one of the guards who dare to oppose Ozam. Death by stabbing in the chest. 5. I am one of the singing ninjas who dares to oppose Ozam. Death by ninja stars. 6. Townsperson who witnesses the Potizzly fight. I escape with my life before the queen can kill me again. 7. Lizardwoman: Together with my fellow lizardpeople I escape imprisonment with Ozam and kill the last guard. 8. The bearded man returns to dance on stage with the cast! The feedback of the audience was, without exception, very good. This play will surely and hopefully return after its last show on Wednesday.

Ladi-Dadi debates on how to devour its next victims. Ltr: Jason (Dadi), me (Ladi)
Ladi-Dadi gets its final blow by Ozam. Ouch. Ltr: Evelyn (Ozam),Jason (Dadi), me (Ladi)
The townspeople at the slave-auction. Ltr: Tim (guatd01), Meg (townsperson), me (townsperson with wig), Jason (guard02), Jason K. (the savage Mok)
Auction! Ltr: Meg, Tim, me Jason, Ming (auctioneer)
The lizard harem scene was one of my favorite, as it included some of the most explicid lyrics. Int he back: Ozam in chains! In the front. me as one of the lizard women, dancing!
In this scene, I finally get to kill someone! In the back, the super high priest, at the floor Jason (guard) and me on the right, stabbing him (huzza!). The lyrics in that scene: Ouch, that guy, they put his ass down hard and now they're actually killing the last town guard.
Ltr: Jason K. (mok), Tatiana (playing Christine the accountant who magically transforms into a Barbarian), Jonathan (Plunder Mic, the thief), Evelyn (Ozam).
Meg and I transforming into Barbarians in the end.

The super evil Queen (played by Monica) singing about rapesecutioners and goats in her bedroom.

NY: I really do love this city. I have been in so many – I have been in London, in New Delhi, Paris, Dundee, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Glasgow, Rome, Venice, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Barcelona, Prague, Frankfurt oh, and not to forget, Salzburg. But New York beats them all. I am not sure what it is. I love the architecture – vast skyscrapers in Manhattan, tiny houses in Queens and Brooklyn, comic-book like water towers on dirty roofs, the psychedelic subway tunnels and the metallic towers that support them above ground. I love the view, when the Q or the J train drive over the bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn, I love the old factories at the water front and the abandoned churches between inhabited houses. I enjoy the mentality of New Yorkers. There is a calmness in all this hectic every day life, and an acceptance. It was also an experience to meet some people who where there at 9.11 and to see how they are dealing with it. The great majority has never lost their respect for cultural diversity, and most New Yorkers I met hated Bush as much as we did. And even though New York can slowly get under your skin, with all the honking, the warm humid air in the summer, its stinky alleys, steaming streets, the crazy car drivers and the prevented terror attacks it’s a city I could imagine to stay. Here are some impressions from the last year:

Excursion to the Norman Rockwell Museum, novembre 2009
Decembre Blizzard
Felix and his dad Matthias visiting, I think novembre (?)
My favorite character of the play, the bearded man and Monica as the evil Queen holding the unfortunaty cardboard goat.
Gaming on the balcony: One of the very best RPGs with the girls gaming group, on the roof of my apartment: Cary, our only male guest, is imitating a turtle.
Gaming at Recess: One of the best games was this one, Lady Blackbird - a steampunk adventure.
Barcade with the nerds. On the left: Melissa.
Ingrid and Viktor visiting!
My first room party! Melissa, me and Brandon (and Cary not in the picture)
Second Blizzard in February (or third?)