Nicole R.

As a kid I would always write my diary entries starting off with "I woke up and..." which I always thought was funny because, of course I woke up and that is why I am writing about my day. So I'm keeping up with this tradition of obviousness and also gratefulness that yes I started my day off by waking up. I do my usual morning routine, 2 toasts and a smoothie for breakfast and go off to work to teach a workshop with highschoolers. I'm collaborating with core subject teachers and creating an art project based off of their lessons. Today it was Biology and the project we're doing is to create a 3-d model of the body with all its body systems. So I laid out all of the different materials students could use like pipe cleaners, clay, tissue paper, etc and it was fun to see the students figure out what material would go best with each body system. 

Here's a picture of the start of someone's project. I love working with teens and it was awesome to get to know them because I love asking questions about their lives and I learned that one of my students loves to cook and we started sharing to each other our favorite meals to cook. They really liked cooking and marinating meats and it inspired me to cook more. 

After work I came home to eat lunch, which was a sandwich that had sliced oven roasted chicken breast, cheese, lettuce and cucumber, that I toasted. Then I went over to second mile/ green line area and flyered around a poster for this print and book pop-up event I'm planning at Blah Blah Gallery on the 23rd. (Come throughhh)

At second mile, I ran into my friend, Florence who was buying a scarf there (because scarfs are always easy to lose) and I shamelessly promoted my event to them. They said they may have art that they want to sell and I was like "sick, let me make sure I have your number" and they looked over at my phone and we both laughed at their contact in my phone because it said: "Florence, Nina's friend" and I was like oh, haha it's so that I can differentiate from the other Florences on my phone. And as I said that, our mutual friend Nina walks into the Second Mile and we both look over and was like "oh shit!! there they are, we were just talking about you". It was a nice laugh overall. Much needed moral booster and beautiful synchronicity for the day.

I bought this cool art project thing where you melt beads on a pegboard to create designs because I have one student who loves to do these fuse beads art crafts:

Then I walked over to Making Worlds to flyer the event and ran into another friend that I caught up with. Talking to friends unexpectedly and running into them is awesome 

After that, I went to the studio really quickly to print a risograph cover of a comic that I'm reprinting. It was a 3 layer print with the colors pink, green, and black and it was a successful printing session! 

At this point in the day, it's 3:00 and now I go back to work at my other site where we are making paper mache balloons that we're gonna paint heads onto.

I ended the night by watching the 6th sense while editing files for the comic on my computer. I ate dinner too, it was like Ramen or something like that. (one of my comfort dinner meals). 

This movie is great and I love seeing Philadelphia represented on the big screen. I've definitely seen this movie before, but it was a while ago and I kind of forgot it, so I didn't remember the ending, and wow what a great plot twist! 

Here's a picture of someone's front door entryway that I took a photo of on one of my walks. I thought it was really cool and would love to have this type of archway/gateway in a future home. It's a nice touch with the vines. 

Nicole is an artist and educator who makes comics, ceramics, illustrations, and screen printed t-shirts. You can find them at art markets throughout philly and at https://www.instagram.com/lost.mirage/