I stink

Okay so I have done a terrible job at keeping up with this blog and my art work. But if I were allowed an excuse, it would be that I have been so busy with moving, finding a job, and taking care of my grandma. The good news is that I will be all moved in this thursday, I got a job, and will be living closer to my grandma!

I have been working on a project though. It's a portrait of my grandma. She is one of the most amazing people I have been blessed to know and love. She has had a wonderful and full life, full of crazy stories. I'm really trying to capture who she is. I'll post it as soon as I am finished.

Hope all is well with my fellow artists and you are doing a better job of keeping up your passion and craft.

Also, if you haven't heard enough about Stephenie Meyer and her great novels you should check them out, start with 'Twilight' its a great read!

Paintings from Ghost Ranch

I just recently got in touch with my painting teacher while I was at Ghost Ranch last jan-term. Her name is Ann Painter and she is a wonderful artist and teacher (http://www.annpainter.com/) Well talking to her inspired to post my paintings. Keep in mind this was the first time I ever painted anything! But it was wonderful and I learned a lot!

This is the first one I did, it was a still life. ***thank god for the very forgiving medium of Acrylic!!

This is a self portrait we had to do.

A painting I did based on a tree I saw in a valley by a river.

Just some flowers

This is a painting of a snow covered forest

Sunset

Environmentalist women

Above: Dr. Wangari Maathai. She is a nobel peace prize winner and an amazing woman who has been working for the betterment of the the environment in Kenya. She is on the parliment in Kenya and also works for human rights.

Above: Rachel Carson. She was a scientist/author who has been thought to start the modern environmentalist movement.

These are drawings i did with pencil on illustration board. The drawing of Maathai I would like to maybe go back and add more contrast, darken some areas.

More Transgendered portraits

Here are the other three protraits I did. The first one is Leslie Feinberg again, then Del LaGrace Volcano, then Betty.

Transgendered portraits

So my final project in my last art class I took a subject I was learning (gender studies) and used it to create some drawings. They are all drawings of photographs of well know transgendered people in the world that are working to bring about change in gender 'normativity' . Here are a few of the drawings.

I drew them on square pieces of wood, that I sanded down and painted white in order to draw on them. There are still some woodgrain lines on them.

My first entry!

Well here is my very first entry here on my new blog. (Can I just say that 'blog' is such a funny word, I just find myself saying "blog, blog, blog, blog, over and over). Like I wrote in my 'about me' description, I'm taking this year off to really explore all aspects of myself and find out what I want my next step in education to be. I loved Austin College and learned a lot. I found that I love subjects like religion, gender, and art. Seminary is something I've always seen myself doing but for someone who is stuggling with faith right now, this is becoming less appealing for many reasons. I did get an minor in art only because it allowed me to keep sane and forced me to use my creative side. So I really would like to use this blog specifically for sharing my art with others. I'm going to treat it like a class almost and make myself create every week. Who knows I might decide to go on to graduate school for art. So here I go! And I hope for all that read about my life and see my work that I can inspire you to create and explore yourself.