crits and review

so i was so nervous for the review, and for no reason! somehow i made it through, despite all my obstacles, (having to get a job and my external hard drive failure) and am extremely happy with the results! good feedback, great questions, and encouragement came from each critique. and happlily, the work isnt literal, melodramatic, or (the dreaded) obvious. i think its because ive been working straight from my intuition and not overthinking anything. so when i told them that in the review, they asked why i made certain formal and compositional decisions to help me figure out where it is im going. but they didnt discuss the video i made, which in digital critique i showed a shorter version of. AND while i was trying to add to it to draw it out more and heighten the anticitpation, is where i ran into the biggest snag ever! my damn bookbag fell off a chair with my external hard drive in it accompanied by 2 cans of paint, leaving it a mess and inacessable. thats what i was building the movie on, so thats where all the clips and footage is. not to mention ALL my photos from the past 6 years or so of my life... >sigh< so but i couldnt worry about that. LUCKILY(!), i had burned the .dv file to the dvd instead of using iDVD, and thats what saved me! but of course i had to clean my computer out a bit (couple hours worth) before i could even attempt to start a new project and import that file and chop it back up, upload a bit more footage, and reedit the sound in audacity after downloading that program. needless to say, i was wound up tight in stress. but i made it :) im happy with the new version, which is now a minute longer and i showed it on a black fabric i hung in my studio along with my black drawings. it works well all together, i think, giving it the feel of a moving drawing. jennings liked the parallel of the black fabric as the backdrop and that black fabric is in the video as well. as for the drawings, i had also wanted to have black paintings, but didnt get that far quick enough. however, i decided to try a new surface instead of the crappy black paper i used already. i got some 4x8 sheets of hardboard (which involved my extremely helpful boyfriend and his truck) and applied a coat of black gesso to draw on. it is sweet. it really allows the rich, velvety blacks and the subtle variations in values to come through. next one, ill definitely use some sandpaper and another coat of the gesso though, for more richness and less evidence of the paintbrush strokes. for now, im working (last minute, of course) on prints for the printmaking crit on tuesday. unfortunately, i have to work 3 shifts this weekend to be able to make rent, so hopefully i can pull through!! and THEN ill worry about that how to get all my data off that hard drive....