An academic year has come and gone. A half dozen term papers, one sprained ankle, and many sleepless nights later I am a college graduate!!! As eager as I am to stay in bed for the next week or two, I wanted to give this blog a proper send-off. What no amount of college bureaucracy or Finals Week madness can take away is how very proud I am of myself. I wrote a journal length paper on a topic I am passionate about; I presented my research at two conferences (NCUR 2014 and the 2014 Macaulay Celebration of Scholarship); and I began a self-portrait series inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, with a hint of Alfred Hitchcock.

This photographic series is far from finished, but I am really grateful for the opportunity to enroll in a course that encouraged me to begin making connections between literature and film and art, in my own peculiar style. Without that much photographic experience under my belt, this was a frightening project to undertake, but my classmates and instructors were supportive of my artistic vision.

This academic journey has not been easy, and I have many people to thank: First and foremost, my lovely colloquium classmates Colby “Colfy” Minifie and Kerishma Panigrahi, aka Kenshma Panigaki. Not only have we stuck together during a year of rough drafts, maddening research, conference prep, and digital insanity, but we have learned so much about each other’s projects. Thanks for cheering me on and making me passionate about self-consciousness and DFW as well as gender and power in Game of Thrones. I have a lot to catch up on this summer!

Thank you Professors Steven Isenberg, Lindsey Freer, and Jenny Kijowski for helping us realize our written theses and drawing out the big ideas we did not realize should be noticed. My “broken males” owe  you all a great thanks!

Thank you to the Macaulay admin, especially Mary Pearl, Joseph Ugoretz, and Mike Lamb, for the unrelenting support in finding thesis advisers and working out the kinks in the course. It is with your help that I made it out to the other side.

Thank you Lee Quinby for agreeing to advise me after we pulled you out of a happy retirement and your directorial duties. You have taught me to think deeply, write clearly, and believe in my own abilities.

And last, but not least, big thanks to my family and friends. Thank you for looking at my sketches, listening to me go on and on about the most disturbing characters in literary and film history, and helping me get his project finished…especially when I sprained my ankle back in December and fell into my own monomaniacal fits. You went to the library for me when icy sidewalks and crutches left me a homebody, stayed up with me while I poured over texts, and endured several Hitchcock movie marathons.

You all played important parts in the realization of this project (and the resulting work that is to come!)

Stay tuned!

Gathering up props and other materials for this series has been an unanticipated adventure in and of itself. I have made several rough and other more fleshed out sketches (to be shown in a later post) that led to the accumulation of the goodies below.
My favorite piece to work on has been the floral wreath the threads throughout the images on the main page. I started with a bare wreath from Michael’s and added some fake flowers from the favorite store of any cheap crafter: Dollar Tree!

I also gathered some other materials that do not necessarily fit in with my running theme, but they may come in handy later.

A set of 1970s skeletons called out to me from the “Take Me” bin outside of a defunct party supply store near my apartment. It was a real trip dragging these dears to my Victorian Lit class and back home on the 6 train.

Some family came over to my overcrowded apartment today to visit my mother and grandmother for the holiday. I’m positive they were not expecting to see what looked like a Ricky’s Halloween shop that threw up all over our living room. Even a crime scene would look more organized than the current scene of my prop preparation.

Bottles of fake blood, mini coffins, candles of all sizes, and an overabundance of fake dollar store flowers are currently placed haphazardly all over our living room floor. As overwhelming as this entire process is, I am definitely excited to see what comes from all this prep and planning!