Time flies when you're....really busy

Hello everyone!
        It seems like this last week was reflective of the gloomy weather we've been experiencing here in NW Ohio. I think many of my friends and family have been feeling the same way. There's just been a bad spirit over things that I'm praying soon will break. That being said, I do have some projects to share finally!

       It is traditional in our high school for  senior students to decorate their lockers, generally wrapping it in school colors and plastering their name and graduation date some where. I wanted to be a part of the trend, but I thought I might do something different. Since I'm considered the 'arty' student, why don't I put a 'masterpiece' on my locker. So I decided to draw the Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world, with my head, crazy glasses and cropped hair! Teachers and students love it, and I'm happy to bring the fine arts back in style. 
        Also this week our band director was able to pin up my backdrop additions in time for our home game last Friday. We experienced a few, problems, (canvas ripping, putting the backdrops too far up, extra canvas falling over) but over all I was happy that they were up at all and I really hope the band appreciated it for their Halloween Show.

Night on Bald Mountain: Night

Night on Bald Mountain: Dawn...with canvas spoof

          I took the day off from school today, my stomach has been giving me problems and I needed the time to catch up on some stuff. I did finally finish some character drawings I'm doing for my lunch table buddies! I drew them as various characters from Mortal Combat, DC, Marvel, and I took some artistic liberties to draw me as Xena Warrior Princess (see first drawing). I used to watch the tv show when I was really little and forgot how much I loved it. *Que warrior scream* I'm hoping I'll show them tomorrow and they'll really like them, already have other people asking me to do the same for them, which is really a mixed blessing. I think I want to create my own super hero....

No peaking!

        And now to do some housekeeping for school, including revising poems and looking at colleges and scholarships.

Peace.

Here I am!

Hi guys!

     So I didn't exactly get to posting things as soon as I should have, but sooo much has happened since I've posted last, I'll try just to focus on just the art related stuff in this post. This is one of the only days in the last 2 weeks when I didn't have 101 things to work on, (even though after this I still have to: do homework, study for the ACT, work on projects for friends, make dinner, so on and so forth).
    While I don't have pictures of everything yet, I've been working on a lot of projects for school lately (which hasn't left much time for anything else).

     I spent nearly all of last weekend working on more backdrops for the band, which I'm hoping will be up at the next home game so my parents can take some pictures (I unfortunately will be behind them helping the band moving them on and off the field). One of the biggest struggles I had working on it was trying to figure out where was the best place to work on them. I ended up setting up a studio in the garage, and after that I can't wait till I have a REAL studio of my own.

(excuse the face...)

     
    With 3 art classes, I've been busy making stuff at school as well, including; decorating my locker ala Mona Lisa (pictures to post later), various art and photography projects, and writing poems for that poetry class I mentioned awhile ago. Here is my first poem workshop entry about the time when I was 7 or 8 when I tried to sell my art work on the front lawn:

Abstraction of a Lemonade Stand

We thought we had so little,

Our things were brown, and used.

I knew a quarter could never buy a home.

But, being the independent child,

Sneaking copy paper and markers,

I’d make do.

Flowers, rainbows, and faces,

For those without such daughters.

I thought I could be someone in those old art books.

Propped up on a Huffy bicycle, next to the street

A stack of masterpieces getting wet in the rain,

Holding a sign in my, small hands,

Drawings: 25 cents

Little changed while on the front lawn,

I mostly watched the rolled up windows, speckled.

Passing slowly but with no intention to stop,

One did inquiry cursorily as to why.

If they thought this sight was strange, they should have,

Stopped inside.

They should have, with cat food hitting the wall.

I went in quietly.

I didn’t think we’d laugh about it now

Adding it to the list for therapy, or a book.

I never thought I’d have to run the same scheme,

Hanging on to childhood dreams.

Why, it’s, fractal geometry.

Self-Similarity.

    There is a lot going on this poem, as it was kinda a strange memory for me. One of the reasons wrote this is becuase I wanted to make the point of how, now that I am high school senior trying to make big decisions about what I what to do and where I want to go, I feel like I still have to 'sell' my art in order to make it anywhere. I still dream of what it must be like to be an artist like Monet, painting in his garden with such passion, surrounding himself in art.
     I just turned 17 on the first, so to celebrate my mom and dad made a short trip up to the Toledo Art Museum. Right now they have a local artist exhibit, and some of the entries were amazing of course, but afterwords I made a beeline for the impressionistic works of the 19th century. I love being able to wander the quiet halls and get close to the art work, seeing every detail right in front of me,  being surrounded by color and movement. There is one painting in particular I always have to see: The Shepard's Star by Jules Brenton.

To look at the structure of her face, the look of her eyes, the ruggedness of her hands and feet, the strength of her arms. To see the soft colors of the setting sun and fields, contrasted with the sharpness of the sickle. What beauty. To see this painting next to paintings of Ophelia and nymphs, I can only keep my eyes on her. That is part of what art is to me, all I want from my life, is be able to live this simple dream, of making art like this. I would love to be one of those prize winners in the local artists exhibit, but only if I can learn to make art that really pulls at my heart.
 I have a lot going on, but I'm hoping I can buy more oils and canvas soon and get to work. Right now it's getting ready for another school week for me.

Peace.