Patricia Burgess

Wow! It's been so long since I posted here, dang!

Anyway, I'm in the midst of preparing for MoCCA! Feel free to come by and see myself and Megan Baehr at table 636! I'll be posting a map of our location later for your convenience.

What I'll have:

-My newest book, "Little Miss May & her kitty, Jub-Jub" - 51 pages (52 with the cover), holy crap!
-My book from last year, "The Tiny Little Tale of Spaceboy Sam"
-Jewelry! I made a ton more this year, a lot of it inspired by my obsession with cute things. Cute fruit earrings, bracelets made from sea glass beads, washi paper pendants, etc.
-Magnets made from original drawings
-Prints of my "Mannangal" cut paper piece (seen here)

Tomorrow I'm making copies of my new book. I still need to figure out how to present all this stuff - I got some cool jewelry holders cheap from Urban Outfitters to make the table look a little spiffy, but I need to find a cute tiny bowl or basket for the pendants. I also need to make cute little pricing signs, but I'm not sure what to make them out of.

Also, does anyone know where I can buy little tiny bags to put the earrings/pendants that people buy into?

My website has updated! Jumping Jehosaphat!

Some bigger new items are my pieces for Pop Euphoria, which just opened tonight! If you find yourself in or around Worcester, MA, between now and Jan 17th, I highly suggest you check the show out! If you can't, ( click here to see some heartwarming images! )

So I guess life update?

The rabbit turned out ok! Vet #1 was terrible, a second opinion with another vet revealed it was Sgt. Pepper's teeth - he was just having some little spurs that caused pain and put him off eating/drinking. A quick change of diet and two weeks later he was fine. So $400 thrown away on that, but I guess it was a learning experience.

Finished up my art for Pop Euphoria. I had a materials fuck-up on my sculpture project and was unable to deliver it, which really bummed me out, but I did get a triptych done! Pictures forthcoming, I'm in the middle of updating my website.

I'm currently visiting my family, which is always slightly awkward, but in a fun way. We could not be a more haphazardly bunched together group of people if you tried. I'm often amazed at how much we seem like some sort of ridiculous sitcom.

Working at Backyardigans is good - I've been doing a lot of spring cleaning (fall cleaning?) and organizing, which is intensely satisfying for me. It's teaching me to become more organized in my daily life, which is actually kinda nice. I'm starting to feel like an adult! Somewhat, maybe. Also my co-workers are pretty awesome - I already think about how bummed out I'm gonna be once the production is over. But, that's entertainment for ya.

Hmm, what else? I am very in love with Dan right now, which is nice. Even after three years, we are still very happy. Life's pretty simple, I'm content and have no serious complaints, which I think is what any person really wants.

Hooray! I'm happy with the new president-elect. Although, to be honest, his election was a little - anti-climactic? I was watching it with a friend, and we went into it fairly confident Obama would win. By 8, when it seemed Florida was his, we were sure. By 10, it was mathematically impossible for McCain to win. So when they finally called it at 11, we weren't surprised. We were happy, of course! It's just funny because we were both expecting this white-knuckled edge of our seat election, and it was pretty much easy as pie.

This parallels my voting experience as well - I got the the poll at 7:25, was gone by 7:35. Was put straight into a booth, pretty much. All this stuff I expected to be difficult (voting, the election) went smoothly.

Still, the thing that strikes me the most, and that I'm the most proud of, is that despite race being a huge issue in this election, it wasn't enough to stop Americans from doing what's right. I was worried, back in the primaries - would America elect a black man? Could people get past their prejudices? Would the bigots come out in droves to cast their votes? But even if they did, those with integrity came in numbers unheard of to prevent the forces of ignorance from winning. We've proven something not only to the world, but to ourselves as a country; that we're progressing. It's a historic occasion because so many open wounds were put aside in order to unite, which is something that I wondered if we'd ever see Americans do in our lifetime. This is what I'm proud of more than anything.

The Senate & House were also quite compelling wins - the democrats now control everything, as in the Carter administration. Proposition 8 was shot down, which is something else I was happy to hear. All in all, a very good election.

EDIT: What? Proposition 8 passed? Aw nuts, last night they were saying it was defeated.

Aww man guys, my bunny is sick. He'd stopped drinking water and urinating, and then last night there was a chalky secretion in his urine. I took him to the vet today, and $500 later (I had to apply for a credit card and get approved TODAY to pay for it, geez) they still don't know what's up. It's not kidney stones or calcium build-up or anything obstructing his bladder, thankfully. We're waiting for the results of a urine bacteria culture and a urinalysis. The vet gave us the option to have bloodwork done, but it was another $90, so I decided to hold off until we got the results to the urine testing.

Of course, now that we're home I'm feeling super-guilty about being so concerned about the money and wondering if I should've done the damn bloodwork. If he dies I will probably lambast myself about not getting that. Huzzah!

But the vet hydrated him, and she gave us some anti-biotics and some pain medication (for his ding-dong, since they stuck a catheter in it), so at least I can have the illusion of feeling like I'm helping him while shoving medications into his mouth twice a day.

And hey, now I have some cool x-rays of the inside of my bunny. So that's something.

Hey all! Things have been good recently, just crazy. A changing of the guard in room-mate situations happens every year at this time like clockwork, and always devours my life.

I'm about to get my ass in gear to start making pieces for this show: Modus Lotus.

My job at The Backyardigans is going really well, I like my co-workers a lot, which counts for a 99.9% of job satisfaction in my book.

Otherwise not much else. I've gotten boring. Oh well!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is really enjoyable, and it's only going to be free on-line until midnight tonight, so watch the three acts while you can. My personal favourite is the first act, but all three fit together to make an amusing story. I really dig how NPH plays Dr. Horrible.

(To those curious and not nerdy enough to have been bombarded with it: "Dr. Horrible" is a project Joss Whedon came up with during the writer's strike, and got a bunch of friends and family together to make. It's got Niel Patrick Harris as the awkward Dr. Horrible just trying to get into the Evil League of Evil, and Nathan Fillion as his douchebag nemesis Captain Hammer. It's also a musical.)

Hey guys, what's up! Work is going pretty well! I've been doing editing for the dance footage and such, it's pretty cool.

I am mostly posting because our room-mates are moving out soon. They're leaving at the end of August, and we'll have two rooms available Sept. 1st. The rooms are priced at $650 and $525 (water & heat included, we pay for electric and cable/internet). We live in a pretty sweet neighborhood in Queens called Rego Park (The Ramones and Art Spiegelman hail from here). We live 5 minutes off the subway (G, R, V lines), about 20-30 minutes into Manhattan depending on where you want to go. Lots of good, cheap ethnic food places, good grocery options (we live a bus ride away from a Trader Joe's).

We're hoping to find people by August 15th, since that's when rent for the unit is due. We'd prefer to find people we know, or references from people we know, etc, rather than go the craigslist route, so spread the word!

Comment here or e-mail me if you want more info. I have pictures, and can give more detailed info.

MoCCA was amazing, but sooo tiring! I stayed up all night Friday night getting my book together, so Saturday was really fun, but by the end of it I felt like dying. Sunday was by far my favourite day - it was more laid back. I sold some prints, tons of pendants, and almost all the books I made! My only regret is that my watercolour paintings for my book didn't replicate as well as I would've liked - for next year I'm gonna look into getting it done more professionally.

It was fun seeing people! Thanks to everyone who came by!

So tomorrow is MoCCA! I'll be at table A4 with my friend, gummibaehr. I'll have some prints, some little magnets and such, and a new (tiny) book! Come by and see me!

Oh yeah to anyone who lives in NYC and enjoys ridiculous music:

Dethklok is playing on June 25.

I totally have tickets, and I will be wearing a black t-shirt emblazoned with a neon yellow skull with flames shooting out of the eye sockets, and I am not ashamed.

Wow I need to post in this thing more.

So here's the piece I submitted to the BEASTS 2! Open call for entries that was forever and a day ago. It's a manananggal, a vampiric creature from the Philippines. At night, its torso separates from its legs and flies off, stalking pregnant women. It uses a long, proboscis-like tongue to reach into the woman's womb and suck the organs and life essence out of the unborn baby (and sometimes the mother).

I made an illustration, then transformed it into a cut-paper piece. I still need to smooth a lot of scanner blips out, but I was cutting it pretty close to the dead-line so they just kinda had to stand.

( Monster is here )

Also, I have discovered that the internet is mostly bad for me. Also that the sky is blue, and water is wet.

Wow! It has been forever since I touched this thing. CRAZY!

My job at Backyardigans is good. The creative stuff doesn't start for a short while, since technically Season 3 is just now winding down and they're only just starting writing on Season 4, so I'm just kinda of doing this and that around the office right now. EDIT: I wrote something here that I've been told makes it sound like I'm not enjoying my job or that I think it's boring, which is untrue (I'm learning a lot and work around some pretty cool people), so I took it out. I was simply saying that in the long run, many years down the road, I aim to do creative work. Sorry for the confusion, folks.

Saw my awesome friend Veronica not long ago, had a good day eatin' Japanese food and looking at ridiculous pop culture toys.

Saw the Kids in the Hall perform in Sunday - it was -awesome-. I was getting over the edge of some sort of cold/flu though, so my laughter went hand-in-hand with hacking, which I'm sure the guy in front of me enjoyed. Still, it was totally worth it.

Uhhh...what else...hmm, I submitted a piece to the BEASTS! 2 open call, I'll post that later.


OK I KNOW THE REST WAS BORING BUT IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING FROM MY ENTRY READ THIS PART.

I am in dire need of new music. My iTunes went insane and was freezing my comp every time it opened. This happened just over a year and a half ago (while working on my thesis), and I only just got around to fixing the problem (required and entire hard drive wipe and os re-install) this January. So I haven't downloaded any new music or discovered any new bands for over a year, and I am starting to go crazy with the music I have.

SO! Please recommend anything you are particularly into, etc. I have pretty eclectic tastes, so don't hesitate to recommend anything to "out there", as I'm pretty much willing to listen to anything. Just no noise bands, please.

So I have a job working on The Backyardigans now. I'm a official employee of Viacom for the next long while (they want me until at least 2010), with a salary and everything. I have sold out to The Man, man. But he offered me health benefits, and this I could not resist.

I start on Monday, so I am taking this week to enjoy the freedom of having time. Today I have to go and buy a couple of pairs of pants that don't have holes in them, because I will be working in a somewhat business-like environment and can no longer enjoy being tatty and gross. The next few days will be devoted to relaxing and pumping out stuff for MoCCA (gonna try and thumbnail my mini-comic I wanna make about Belle Gunness).

My zest for life has been somewhat less than zesty lately. Obviously, the solution is to get off my ass and do more things. Any suggestions on awesome things people have done lately?

Things are going ok!

I need to come up with stuff for MoCCA soon, argh. I have a half-table with gummibaehr, who I will be happy to see from the far-off land of Vermont!

Ummm...what else...oh!

I recently participated in two animation jams. One is the Frederator Drinking and Drawing event, and can be seen atChannel Frederator (the first video on the main page, the preview image is about voting) they've got it up on the Drinking and Drawing homepage. The second is a tiny anijam at the end of this week's nockFORCE:

Hey guys! I am doin' OK. The interview I had went well, but the work is kinda far off into the future, the way that things in this industry tend to be. However, I've found work in the meantime, so yay!

Also, about two months ago a co-worker introduced me to Yo Gabba Gabba, a children's show made by MC Bat Commander from the Aquabats. It's pretty much an great show that's about teaching children to enjoy music, but with clever little lessons put in. It's also a pleasure to look at, as lately I've been a whore for brightly coloured pop art.

Hey guys! Happy Halloween!

I got a job manning a booth at the NYC Holiday Market. I guess I should be sad that it's not art-related, but I'll actually make a ton of money from it, so I'm really happy. It'll give me a chance to really get my career going (since I won't have to worry about money so much) and put a sizeable savings aside. I start November 17th, so I've got some time off until then - I'm trying to organize what I wanna do for MoCCA and I've started a short film...hopefully I can keep the momentum going.


Oh yeah, I totaly realized I forgot to share what me and my boyfriend are dressing up as for Halloween.




Awesome.

Hey guys! I know some people had problems viewing the video because Bravia's website is a bit bloated, so here it is!



Anyway, I did a tiny bit of Flash animation the other day, still playing around with the program. Click to play.



I'm gonna try and throw myself into it next week (I'm gonna force myself to spend 4 hours a day on comics, 4 on animating) and see what comes out of it.

Oh yeah and and I guess ( have some pictures of my bunny )

The Sony commercial I animated for is out (well, me and 40 other stop-mo animators)- check it out here:

http://bravia.sony.eu/ (choose the one called Play-Doh)


Buuuunnies. On a side note, the commercial was pitched with the song you hear and everyone was worried they wouldn't get the rights to it...I'm glad to see they managed it.

Oh yeah, and the Sony commercial I animated for is set to drop soon - Oct 5 is the date we've heard.

Until then, they put a trailer/making of thing up on their website.

http://www.bravia-advert.com/ny_downloads/downloads.html



Check out who is in it! If you said ME you are correct!