.thoughts.

So,

It has been quite a few months since I blogged. I felt like I had to blog tonight because my head is about to explode. I have been happily married for a whole month now and I am loving it :) I've known my husband, Jay for about 11 years now and he is the best husband a woman could ask for. Marriage brings so much to ones life. I know that I am still quite a newlywed, but it has drastically changed my life already! We are learning to sacrifice for one another and learn each others' needs.. which can be fun at time and also challenging; however, it is always rewarding.


I'm writing tonight because like I said before, I have a ton on my mind. During the past month, so many things have happened. Just recently in my community, two young men have passed away. They were both under 25 and passionately following after the Lord. I didn't know either one of them very well, but their lives have still impacted me. Death in general can cause you to think more about your own life. Whether it's losing a loved one like a grandparent or a parent or seeing someone your age pass away, there is always something to be learned from the situation. Life is so fragile. It's hard when you are young because you feel like you have your whole life ahead of you. If you're in your early twenties you have college to look forward to, then hopefully a career, and then your own family. In general, that's the pattern atleast... and in my mind that's always been the expectation. But what if that's not God's plan for us all? Maybe His plan for us is to skip the college route and just serve others either in the US or overseas. Maybe His plan for us is to go to college, get a great degree and use our skills to help others. Maybe He calls us to a life of singleness, or maybe He calls us to get married and live our lives raising a family of followers for Him. Who knows? He never told us that we were promised all these things, He just promises that He'll be with us through whatever comes our way.

I guess this has been on my mind a lot because I just don't want to waste my life. Both of the young people who passed away had great impact in their community or wherever they went. I'm sure they didn't plan on leaving their families behind so soon, but I think God is trying to wake up our community. We need to realize that we're not promised tomorrow. Another story that struck me was the interview on TV this past Sunday where Jaycee Dugard was interviewed for the first time on television. She was the young girl that was kidnapped at age 11 and was held captive for 18 years by her kidnapper. The morning of her abduction, she recalls that her mother rushed out the door because she was late for work and forgot to give her a kiss goodbye. Jaycee remembers thinking that she would just kiss her mother later that day when she got from school, but was kidnapped on her way to the bus stop. During the interview, Jaycee's mother said that she had put work before her children that day and the idea that she had forgotten to give Jaycee a kiss that morning haunted her for the 18 years they were separated. It wasn't just the physical kiss that mattered so much, is was what it symbolized. Do you want the last words out of your mouth to a loved one be a harsh word? Do you want to end a relationship with a fight? Do you want to hold hate and grudges and bitterness towards someone who means a lot in your life? We need to realize that we are not immortal. Whether you have a relationship with Christ or not, do you want to live your life without purpose? Do you want to live a life of selfishness and self-focus? We should take something from these stories. There is a world out there full of hurting people who need love and healing. Don't think twice when a friend who is hurting cries out in need. Help and touch everyone that you can while you are here. Have free time? Go work at a shelter or help out at a youth center and mentor a teenager or something! There is so much to be done!

Okay, I think I'm done. This has just been weighing so heavily on me. I can't hold it in anymore and I figured since I have a blog, why not use it :)

It's been a long time comin'

Hi friends!

I'm stuck inside, sick on a rain day. What better to do than blog? Life has been super busy due to the fact that I am now engaged and getting married in a couple of months :) If you don't know me personally, I have known my fiance for over 9 years now and we've been together almost 3 years. He surprised me with a proposal back in November when I went to the airport to pick him up from a visit with his parents. He surprised me with all of my friends there... needless to say, it was perfect and I was shocked! Here's a picture of my lovely ring!

Anyhoo! I thought I would blog to help my creativity... I've been so busy with wedding planning, finishing up my classes (I graduate with my Bachelor's degree at the beginning of May!) and so many more things. I have a show coming up at the beginning of May and I need to start cranking out some new pieces. I've been working on an every day superheroes... I know that this has been a common theme in other work.. I've been putting my own spin on it. I've been working on pieces that talk about this new stage of life that I am going in to. All in a matter of a couple of months I will be graduating from college, getting a full-time job, getting married, learning how to be a wife and run a household, and so many other things! I've been trying to use this series to kind of work through all of my feelings about change. I'm not one that looks for change and I have a hard time dealing with it. So, I've been using images of women who are in these roles that I look up to in my work. 

I recently made a print of my mother and I that I will have to post soon (I have yet to document it). I am also working on some collagraph plates to go within this series. I want to use some clothing and cloth in my prints and found a new artist that I LOVE. Her name is Jean Shin and she is from South Korea. She uses clothing in a lot of her work in installations and prints. She uses her own clothing as a way to riff off of the usual self portrait. Here are some of her works:

With this series called Pressed, Jean literally took her own clothing, adhered it to plates, inked the plates and ran them through a press. This series makes up a kind of self-portrait and refers to pressing, laundering, and dry cleaning processes.

In the work, Jean made a wall mural using clothing from the museum staff at the MoMA. She used the flat panels of the clothing and also the seams to make this installation. This wall has clothing from people ranging from the Museum director of the museum all the way down to the janitor. To me this piece has a very unifying quality to it.

This work is called Penumbra and is made of broken umbrellas sewn together and suspended between trees. I won't get too far into this work, I just love the idea of sewing and handmade things. I also love how this artist re-purposes these items. 

Each of the pieces of fabric she uses has a sort of history and previous purpose and she takes these objects, breaks them apart and sort of re-purposes them. I believe that re-purposing to bring about new ideas is an artists' main job. Of course, artists have many jobs and goals, but I do believe this is very important. 

If you have time, take a look at her stuff for yourself: http://www.jeanshin.com/

Well, hopefully I will have some images for you soon of my new works. 

Happy Tuesday!

.stop the traffic.

Lately I have been burdened about women who are forced into sex trafficking and also those working in the porn industry.

I recently found out that a young girl I knew a few years ago dropped out of high school during her senior year to become an amateur porn star. For her, like many, this industry gives them a sense of power. I don't want to make too many assumptions since I have no experience in this realm and don't know her history or story, but things like this cause my mind to wonder. What lead her to want this lifestyle? Is it born out of a need that wasn't met somewhere along the way? What leads a woman to desire to bare her body and sell herself? I'm not sure, so I again won't make assumptions, but it is heart breaking to me. 

On the flip side of this are women who are forced into prostitution and are victims of sex traffickers daily. These women range from young tourists in foreign countries to foreign exchange students unknowingly walking into the hands up pimps to young girls being lured by total strangers right near their own homes. 

This is happening all the time. Every day. Right now, someone is being sold, degraded, and making money for sick, selfish people. Their innocence is being sold at a high price, but even once they are found and rescued, that innocence can never be bought or returned to them.

Well, I don't have much else to say right now. I would ramble, but don't want to over-do it. Just know that sex trafficking is a reality. It could be happening right next door. Make yourself aware. More to come later. I will be reading up on this subject more. For now, here is a heart wrenching story that I read tonight about teen that have become victims of this horrific industry. Let's leave it at that. Read here.

Until next time.

...animation!...

Hello friends :)



I've been busy working away at final projects of the semester.. it's crazy how fast it is going!! Just thought I'd make a quick post of my most recent drawing project. We had to create a simple animation (atleast 10 secs.) of anything we wanted as long as it related to ideas of happiness or utopias... Here is what I came up with! Enjoy :) Oh! And it's called "Winter Dreaming" and the music is by "Skating" by Vince Guaraldi

.Community Arts.

Hello all!

As promised, here are some pics from last week's CREATE event:

The set up :) I drew out a grid with highlighters! 

 The numbers on the grid corresponded with numbered paintbrushes and cups (this was to help keep the painting random and the image a secret from participants).

Detail

Participants were instructed to pick a number on the grid and paint it in with the corresponding paint brush.

First few squares!

A little drip :)

The finished product!!

So, I'm not sure if I explained this project before, but I'll explain it now :) My boyfriend and I (Jay is pictured above holding the painting.) co-run an arthouse/coffeehouse event once every few months. We usually call in visual artists and bands to come play. For myself, I just love creating an atmosphere of inspiration and also an atmosphere of learning for those not familiar with the art world. This event has grown over the past few months, but I've always wanted a way to get everyone involved. So many times people come in, they see the artwork, and they appreciate it, but never get involved or go any deeper than a visual appreciation. A friend of ours had us over for dinner and told us about this project and I thought it would be perfect for our crowd! Basically, the message behind the piece was about building a better city and community. If we all just focus in one area of service that we are passionate about, it will in turn better our community and build a better city of Tampa. Many of us don't know how to work together either. It just takes finding a place where you can serve and plugging in and then supporting each other in our service. It was so great to get everyone involved and I learned a lot by watching the participants! Thanks so much to those who were involved!

..Happenings..

Hello! Life has been crazy, as usual, as the semester is in full swing! All of my classes are really pushing and competing for my time and energy as we are past midterm and hopefully rolling quickly to the end of this crazy semester I am in! Since my last post, I have been involved in two pretty awesome events! Last Saturday I was in a show called the Indie Craft Show run by a fellow friend! I'm not much of a crafter, but it was great to be involved in this show to see everyone's creative gifts! Here is a picture of my booth!:

The lovely girl sitting next to the booth is my dear friend, Sara! She helped out by making some jewelry to sit at our booth :)

And here's a better picture of the booth itself :)

I have had a lot of fun stuff going on. Last night we had one of our most successful CREATE coffeehouses yet! My friend Jay Aden's band did a live recording and we also had lovely art there! Both of my friend, Femke Jenkins and Amy Menendez brought original art work :) It was so nice! To spice things up a bit, we also did a community art project to get everyone involved! I will post pictures later... I can't seem to find my camera cord at the moment :(

On top of all of these fun things, school has been super stressful. I understand that once I'm out of school, I will miss these days! I will definitely miss the community that I feel in school. There's nothing like having constant input on your work and where you are going in your ideas. I have grown so much over the past couple of years while attending college and wouldn't trade it for anything... except maybe sleep and more money haha!

Well, that's all for now! More pictures to come :)

.do you copy?.

Hey friends!! I am sorry I haven't blogged in a long time! I am totally buried in a pile of homework that will never end... But I thought I'd blog since a lot has happened! Here are some photos of what I've been doing the past few weeks since my last post:

So, this image above is my latest printmaking project. Didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but it was fun to experiment! This one is titled "Lady Liberation"

This is the first drawing from my intermediate drawing project. The project is called Copy, Synth, Morph. We have to copy two artists works, then synthesize their style for the third drawing and then morph their styles into our own personal style. This first image is by Shahzia Sikander, titled "Fleshy Weapons". I learned how to tea stain paper :)

This is the second copy I had to create. This was made from a piece by Wangechi Mutu. I learned lots about collaging and working on Mylar! Fun!

And here is my third Copy (This is for the second group of the project). This is from a section of a work my Neo Rauch. It's really not finished yet, but after putting tons of hours in, this will do for my first deadline.

So, that's pretty much it. My brain feels like it's going to explode right now from all of these projects!!! Started a new printmaking plate today, using color reduction theory, so we'll see how that plays out! I will also post pics of the Synth and Morph images from round one of the project later... I'm tired of taking pictures! 

Oh, and here's my other copy.. utter fail... hah!

from a work by Jesse Bransford... this is terrible and I am embarassed!