Old School

So I recently took all those photos, like I said, so I figured I'd post some of them here to share with whoever reads this, haha.







the first and the last were done my senior year of high school. The one in the middle was done my junior year. As you can see, I'm very attracted to line. I think I am going to try and get back into that style, just to see if I can take it even further.

79 Days

I'm 79 days away from Paris. 80, if you count the fact that its going to take a whole day to get there, haha. I can't wait...I keep thinking about all the baguettes and brie I will eat while I'm there. Yummmmy.

I got excellent news yesterday, too; the Honors College at USF gave me a $1500 scholarship to help pay for the trip! That will take care of the last payment fees and leave me with $100 to put towards food while I'm there.


In other news, I turned in a huge project today in my class called Real Word. We made presentation portfolios meant to mimic that of a portfolio for job interviews and requests for gallery representation. It was really expensive (about $200) and really time consuming. However, now I have plenty of pretty photos of my work printed in 8x10 and many many more photos of my artwork on my computer. Hurrah.

Here is one now!



Nude model in my Intermediate painting class...finished it a couple weeks ago. Oil on canvas, 24"x36"

Lonely Blog

Nobody reads this blog. Its sort of depressing, yet understandable. It's sort of boring to listen to someone ramble on about their school and artwork.

Drawing

I love drawing...I love it almost as much as I love painting.

Here's what I did in my intermediate drawing class last Thursday:



Its Emilio! He's an awesome artist...check him out at his website.

What I am...

Sometimes I realize something:

I, as a human being and as an artist, am average.

Average.

Average...

I don't WANT to be average...to be noticed by a couple people here and there who have no (or little) talent themselves...then to fade from their minds and live on for a little while in someone else's mind. Thats how average people are known. The important people pay no attention. The truly talented people pay no attention. The successful people pay no attention. There's no reason to pay attention. I'm simply average and my work is average.

What can I do to strive to be top-notch? How can I improve myself and my artwork to be worth something to society...to be noticed by all, not simply by those who are only interested in the fact that I can make pretty things?

My art is all I've been given at this point in my life...its all I have to focus on. God wants me to do something with it, but WHAT?


I don't want to be average. I will not remain average.

I'm not feeling the art tonight. Its amazing how much creative energy being bored can zap from me rather than motivate me.

I'm just going to go to sleep soon. Can't be bored and unmotivated when I'm sleeping.


Hopefully something amazing will happen in the morning. Amazing or slightly interesting.

I am feeling SO unmotivated. I have a lot of work to do. I'm not doing it at the moment...obviously. I started to wonder why I felt this way...physically and emotionally exhausted without the desire to create anything what-so-ever. Then I realized the answer...or answers...were very obvious.

I'm physically and emotionally tired because I'm a girl, and you know what happens to us every month. I don't care if this is TMI for some of you. Its annoying.

I'm physically tired because I didn't sleep much last night, and the quality of sleep in general as of late has been less than satisfactory.

I'm emotionally tired and have no desire to create anything because thats all I've been doing for the last 4 weeks of the semester. I realize I'm an art student and thats what I'm supposed to do, but everyone needs a break now and then.


To appease the blogging heavens (I don't know if that is a little blashphemous or not...) I will post a picture of the first painting I finished this semester. The first of the freaking 4 retarded zombie paintings.

I Forgot About Something...

Ok, the sketchbook will come next. I realized the other day that I forgot to post photos of my finished commissions!

Unfortunately, I can only post the first, because I forgot to photograph the second. How awful is that?!

And the Insanity Begins Now....

Sorry that its been so long since I've posted. I've been busy and lazy and forgetful...

The semester at USF is in its 4th week now, and I can tell you that I'm starting to feel the heat. Painting class has been my busiest. Elisabeth Condon (check out her work, its amazing), my professor, has been keeping us working constantly. I wouldn't mind at all if I wasn't finding myself being completely bored with the assignments. So far I have painted the same thing 3 times, but in a different style...and our next assignment is to do it a 4th time. So I will have 4 paintings of zombies. Now, I love zombies, but not that much. There's no meaning in zombies for me except that they're cool. I need to find a way to make zombies relate to my life...I have to make them worth painting somehow.

Not only am I bored with the zombies, I'm bored with our pallette. Its a Venetian pallette from the 16th century. Its 3 pigments: Transparent Red Oxide, Cold Black, and Zinc White. How boring is that? I need COLOR...bright hues, low yellows and greens....something thats not earthy red and blue-black. PLEASE.

Aside from class assignments, I have been wanting to make a painting of a guy I met at Barnes and Noble. When I finish it, I'll post it here and tell you the story.



Drawing class has been excellent. I love drawing. Lately, we've been drawing nude models, and the last two were both men. I do find men to be a bit boring to draw. Sorry, guys, you just don't have the nice shapes that women do. I will say that the first time I drew the nude male, I accidently made him look very well endowed. It was funny and embarassing at the same time...my face turned bright red when he thanked me. =P



Scultpure has been a great experience. I'm still afraid of the miter box saw, but its ok....I don't have to use it, really. Its all big and clunky and I have to put all of my weight into pushing it back. Our first project is due in two weeks. Mine should be very ineresting. All I will tell you for now is that it involves teeth. Many, many teeth. Ugh, its freaking me out.




My class called The Real World (about being an artist in "the real world", go figure) is interesting and boring at the same time. We have tons of work to do...its all due on the last day of class, so I'm supposed to manage my time efficiently. Thats probably the thing I am absolutely the worst at. Good luck to me!



My next post will have some of the sketched I've been doing in my sketch book for drawing class.

Thanks for reading. =)

My first real commission!

So my MySpace and website have finally paid off! I have my first real art commission....I say "real" because the previous ones have all been from friends and family members. There is something so professional feeling about getting a commission from a total stranger who found me through my website.

I'm doing two charcoal portraits of a man's two children, and I'm getting paid $300 to do it! Hurrah! This money will be needed for my study abroad trip to Paris...especially since I didn't get one of the 4 $750 grants the school was giving out. For those of you who don't know, I'm going to study abroad in Paris in summer of 2009.

Anyways, I've started the first portrait. I'm pretty happy about it. I'll post pictures later!