Stephens is my Valentine!!

Yay!!! Valentines Day was so sweet this year! Stephens took so much care of me this year- and it's a good thing too because this might be my last Valentines Day alone for a while- graduation means a big girl apartment in the same town as my boyfriend! 

Also- don't know if you guys knew this or not, but it turns out the real meaning of Valentines Day (especially at this girl's school) is cookies.

Yep. Cookies.

Well, plus these amazing cupcakes we decorated ourselves thanks to our baker, Micah. He spoils us, can't you tell?

Also note the genius of Carolyn. She filled chocolate...with chocolate...genius.

Also note the majesty of Arianne's cupcake decorating skills!

And then after cupcakes I was gifted with cookies from the camera supply closet! 

BUT OH MY GOSH THEY WEREN'T JUST COOKIES WERE THEY?

NO THEY WERE NOT! 

THEY WERE DR.WHO COOKIES! 

WITH TARDIS'S ON THEM!

And then we had bubbles in class! 

And then, well, did I mention cookies?

Yes. Yes I think I did. 

Happy Valentines Day to all of you lovely ladies!! 

(and to George, who reads my blog more regularly than I do! I miss you!)

love, rudi

No Good Day.

One of those days, ladies and gentlemen. One of those days...

where you just want to cry and curl up, you're losing your kitties, the weather is too much to handle, an all you want to do is put on your favorite crazy patterned jammies, block out the world with your Dora hat, and munch on some candy. 

Of course, looking through all of the pictures you have of your baby sister throwing baby fits is sure to cheer you up, even a little bit.

Even if just a little bit.

love, rudi

Open House with President Lynch

Last week the historic President's home was opened up for display! 

For those of you who aren't familiar with the situation, the President's home has been on campus since the beginning, but had recently fallen to ruin and extreme disrepair. The roof was caving in, the walls were rotten-- all sorts of bad stuff. President Dianne Lynch initiated the Home Again campaign to save the building, to preserve the integrity and history of the school and recreate the space to the beauty it once had. 

After lots of fundraising and hard work, significant changes have finally been made, and the house is almost completely livable again! 

Dianne (who, with her family, live in a small portion of the upstairs) decorated the house up in holiday cheer and invited campus to come have a look-see! The house was beautiful, the snacks delicious, and the experience heartwarming. It stirred up a lot of school pride to see that Stephen's is working hard to bring back the hospitable traditions that go along with the President's home. I hope the house is finished soon, so I can be a part of them before I graduate next year.

Also, the old-lady nerdy part of me appreciated how much the reconstruction focused on being historic and keeping the old charm of the building. I die for a good hard wood floor or an adorable nook-and-cranny. 

Plus, a big kudos to Dianne Lynch for owning Florence and the Machine in vinyl. 

Super hipster points, P-Lynch. Super.

love, rudi

Midnight Breakfast!

Stephens has this *awesome* tradition when finals week comes around.

Oh, yeah, by the way, it's finals week. That's why I'm fighting to keep my eyes open while typing this.

Anyway, the tradition is called Midnight Breakfast. It's not only the gift of a midnight snack of bacon and fluffy pancakes, but the gift of having that snack served to you by your teachers, admissions counselors, and even President Dianne Lynch herself! 

Oh, and also? We have a DJ, and everyone dances until their footy pajamas are threadbare.

 credit: Ericka Burse

credit: Halea Boulter

Yvonne, one of my teachers and the Director of Leadership and Diversity, with a group of students.

credit: Mariah Overstreet

credit: Mariah Overstreet

credit: Mariah Overstreet

 credit: Meghan Copler

Recognize these faces? That's Rachel, Rikki, Andrew, and Jamie from the admissions department! 

credit: Stephens Dining

And of course- lovely Margaret who edits our papers, Corrie from the library, and President Dianne Lynch! Serving bacon like a pro, despite being a vegetarian.

credit: Stephens Dining

Last night was a total hit! The cafeteria was full of people dancing and enjoying themselves, laughing and temporarily forgetting the terrors of finals week. I love that Stephens shows so much support during these terrible times, from Midnight Breakfast to the library staying open extra late and serving coffee and sprinkled donuts (!!!). 

So thanks, Stephens. We sure appreciate it.

love, rudi

Design Holiday Open House

Friday was a special day for the design, art, and fashion departments here on campus. We had a holiday party where students displayed their work and delicious little meatballs and yummy punch were served. It was a healthy little party, and it was great to see how we've all been working so hard.


Two of my pieces were displayed. In the main room, the Davis Art Gallery, we hung my inspiration chandellier. I made it for my final project in my Principles of Design class. My original project looked quite different, but I got a big dose of drama when I realized that my plan wasn't working two days before it was due. Special thanks goes out to my Momma, who not only talked me down from a panicky ledge, but also gave me the idea to use a hula hoop instead of a paper mache spiral (long story). After making a few last minute edits (barely in time, by the way) I finally hung the piece up, and minutes later the crowd arrived.

( The Regina Spektor poster at the top is mine)

It was really satisfying to see everyone's great pieces and to see mine nestled in with them. 

Just when I thought I was getting tired of working every day, I got another burst of energy that's gotten me excited all over again.

love, rudi

And the Winner Is...

Hey girls! 

Two big things happening this week:

One

 The Reveal of my new blog layout!! I've been wanting to redesign for a long time to something simpler and cleaner, and that allowed bigger pictures in the posts, and now the new look is finally here! I'm hoping to add more and more to the blog as time goes by, so keep reading. :)

Two

Tomorrow I have an interiew that I'm really nervous and excited about. Creative Ink is the "student-run integrated marketing communications firm" at Stephens, and they're only accepting two or three new applicants this year. I want to be a part of it so bad. They do advertising work for real clients, so it's crazy great for your portfolio as a designer/marketing student, but I'm mostly excited about being a part of the team. That sounds so Disney, but it's true! It's a group of 12 passionate and driven creatives pulled together to collaborate and work on big projects in inspired ways- I don't know about you, but that's pretty much my dream job scenario anyway.

So I'm nervous. Which is really weird for me- I don't usually get nervous about presentations, performances, or interviews. I'm sure that it's because I've been thinking about it a lot, and that I want the position so badly. Interviews aren't my strong suit out of the public-speaking world, either. I'm usually excited about whatever I'm being interviewed about, and my personality really gets strong when I'm excited. That may sound like a good thing, but I have a lot of personality. People expect you to be nervous or shy during interviews, and when I burst in all energetic and fearless like some golden retriever it's a little off-putting.

Anyway. Despite my butterflies, I'm fairly certain that as long as I play this song in the background while I walk in slow motion to my interview, I'll win. 

  Wish me luck :)

love, rudi

Doing Your Homework

The mobile in the basement of the library.

There’s some weak part of me that wants to avoid researching other designers and their work, and concepts. Every time I see a new idea I find myself saying, “Well, there’s one less that I can use.” I’ve been going on like this for the past few hours, mixing my evening between sketching and trying to pull together concepts for some assignments with forcing myself to be explorative. It’s like exposing my mind to these works deletes that part of me that now must accept the fact that now, whatever I do come up with, has to strive to be pushed yet another step further.

But if I didn’t force myself to take all this in, to digest as much art and design and other people’s good ideas, I’d be taking the easy way out. But after spending an entire evening on pinterest.com (wow, by the way) I’ve taken myself one step further- seeing all the art out there makes me braver. Check out what I’ve marked in just an hour or so of searching- there is so much good art out there. And that fact- that it’s everywhere and it’s amazing and there’s always some awesome thing that you’ll never have even thought of- reminds me that whatever I do will be created, and it will exist. And that’s saying that every time I have some project or feeling, all I have to do is throw it out there and then there it will be. Forever. For anyone who finds it, it’ll be another reminder (in a world filled with them) that every piece of art is a beautiful byproduct of everything. I’m finding bravery in being anonymous.

But still, it's always a pit of disappointment when you see something brilliant that you didn't make. I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping my chin up anyway. I hope you can do the same.

By the way, and I meant to tell you all in some big awesome post before life got in the way, I was elected Sophomore Class President Monday, and I've been riding on a I'm-Really-Proud-of-Myself cloud all week. I was never elected ANYTHING in high school despite my desire to be, and it's just one of those zero-to-hero stories that seem to come up so frequently around here. Dreams come true at Stephens. I promise you that.

love, rudi

Breakthrough

The thing I love best about design and marketing so far is the amount of immediate freedom I have in it. I don't have to wait around for someone else to decide if I can be involved or not like I would in theatre. I don't have to already know a bunch of rules and regulations if I want to create something like I would with set design or follow another person's idea of what the art should be, and find out a way to fit everything that's going on in my head into their vision.
I'm not losing the collaboration, either- that will develop later once I've discovered who I am and what I can do as an artist, which is what I really wanted to learn in college anyway. Stephens has always provided itself to me as a safe place to take risks, but I'm finally at a place where I'm able to really take advantage of that. There's no more waiting, and it's all up to me.

   And another thing? I can't tell you how liberating it is to not be constantly wondering if I'm good enough, if my personality is up to scratch, if what I do matters, or if I'll ever get a job like I used to, and like 98% of my theatre friends still deal with. It's not a bad thing to be selfish and concentrate to developing myself anymore, in fact it's encouraged.

These are a few of the sketches from our very first assignment.

 
That sort of happened to me yesterday during my Typography class. Earlier in the day, during Principles of Design, I spoke with my teacher Kate about several of my designs. We talked about my gravitation towards texture and depth in design, and whole bunch of other jargon-heavy concepts that were appearing in my art. Later, during Typography, I had to quickly sketch a few concepts for a poster, and it took Kate all of five seconds to decide which concept I should run with. "It's you! You have to develop this idea because when I saw it, I knew it was you doing that. That's you're thing."
   Maybe that doesn't mean anything to a lot of you, but basically I had a breakthrough yesterday. a mini milestone. Kate, my audience, recognized something I did as my work, she noticed and identified my style. That means I have a style! Or, at least, the beginning of one. One of the biggest goals of my year is to pinpoint and discover my style as an artist, to settle in to my particular aesthetic, and yesterday it happened. It was minor, but so important.

This is the poster I did yesterday, the poster that's "my thing". This is my G.

I got really excited. I've felt so great ever since, and I'm so happy to have that inkling of confirmation that I'm on a good path, one that fits me that I can really settle into and do exceptional work in. It's so priceless, it's such the ideal "college dsicovery" thing.

   

Have any of you had moments like this? I want to know your experiences! Leave me a comment,
I want to know I'm not alone on this one.

As always,
love, rudi

P.S. I'm going to start playing around with the way I do things around here. Any input, positive or negative, is completely appreciated!

Oh Mighty One

Intimidation.

It has several new nicknames, folks: iMac. Typography Class. InDesign. New Self Service Scanner in Cafeteria.

But mostly iMac.

Except don't tell my teachers, because I want them to think I'm fearless and awesome.

It's very refreshing to be intimidated, though. Does that make me sound awful and arrogant? It's just that in high school everything was so easy, and studying theatre is a lot about practicing and discovering things you already knew. But now, for the first time in a long time, I have to really work on learning computer programs and a whole new career vocabulary. Apparently calling an HTML manual a "chunky script" isn't quite going to cut it.

I feel like some sort of cage fighter, because I can already see my opponents for the semester, I know their names and how they can beat me, and I am so ready to put up my dukes and get to business.  

love, rudi

Goodbye, Old. Hello, New!

Last week Mom, Sadie, and I drove off and away from our pretty little house in Kentucky and headed out to the Wild West! Which, by the way, between Columbia, Missouri and Kentucky is just a big Indiana cornfield.

It was really rough leaving home, because like I said in my last post, I'm really apprehensive about the coming year. It was even more heartbreaking to leave home when everything was so green and plush, and our garden was just starting to ripen up the watermelons.

My stepdad Ben woke up early to send us off.

But now I'm here at Stephens!! And I've already got tons of material for more posts- I can tell this year is going to be packed with creativity. And, an added bonus for all you guys, I'm not only in a photography class this semester, but my work study has me taking a lot of pictures, which means I should have plenty for eye candy for you!!

I know I'M excited! SO, the first chance I get to take a big deep breath and pull together another post, it'll be Stephens Stephens everywhere!! Keep a lookout for your own face!

love, rudi

Snow!

It snowed!!!!!!!!!

We had our first snow of the season last night!!

It's so super cold outside it's painful, but it's also really, really pretty. I feel bad complaining too much- I just have no tolerance for cold. I hate it more than I hate having my shoelaces tied together. And that is a strong hate.

Here's the view from my dorm window!

Also, for a community service project the girls in one of my classes went to a women's shelter in town. We played in the snow with kids!

And made cookies!

and tambourines out of bowls and dried peas!

Also, some of you may remember that I promised a special post,
and it's still gonna happen! Scheduling is just so crazy difficult. I'll let you all know when it arrives!

Wish me luck for this week! We begin finals, and it's gonna be a doozy!

love, rudi