Three Autumn Trees in Hoyt Arboretum.

I have grand hopes of learning to document my work over break so I can get my portfolio together. By the time I get around to applying to 4 year programs I will be under the wire as the deadlines go. Anyways it seemed really simple at school when people were helping me, AKA doing it for me! I have a tripod and a level and I seem to think that it should be easy now. Not really, I took his picture before I got lights so we'll see what happens when I get those set up.

I haven't named this painting yet. I painted it from sketches I made at the Arboretum, though I did not stay true to the landscape exactly. My painting teacher feels that this is the least resolved of my pieces and while I think it is the most static I really can't figure out what else to do to it without completely repainting it. I love trees and color so I guess I don't mind having a static but colorful painting of some very beautiful trees. Hopefully I will outgrow static.

Oatmeal: the Movie.

I am now officially on Winter break, finals week was rough but I did well and I am very happy to report that I am finished with my college math career! Painting finals are a whole different story. We don't take tests. We aren't forced to paint a still life in 2 hours to prove our skill. We have a critique. Everyone puts all their work up from the quarter and we disscuss as a group what works and doesn't work about each piece. They are extremely educational but somewhat dissapointing in that, inevitably, there are pieces I think are finished that aren't. I have three such paintings. Patience is the hardest part of being an artist so far.

Anyways, like I said, I'm on break. Although I have been running around trying to gather lights, velvet and camera gear to take slides of my work, and lumber and tools to frame work, I am actually trying to relax too. One thing I find really important is to play creatively like I did before I had any notion of making art a career. Oatmeal: the Movie. is just that sort of endeavor. My sister and her husband thoughtfully gave me their digital camera after they upgraded. It's far superior to the one I had and it makes movies! I have no idea why this film is so funny to me. I know nothing about film making and it is really hard to film what you are doing when what you are doing you would normally do with two hands. I like it anyways.

The End of Math and Other Post-Flu Stories.

Well, I have just returned from the land of ill-health. It's not my favorite place to be but now that I am back in a sound body I feel as though I've accomplished something, like taking a trek through the desert or enduring a meditation retreat. Of course it's not like my life stopped, I'm a student, you know, and I work in a restaurant. Neither industry stops for the wounded. So, although it feels like I have slept through the last few weeks I have still been an artist making art and a barista making lattes and a math student avoiding limit notation and logarithms. The print to the right is one I thought I would give up on but one day when I needed a reason to avoid the function of g with the function of h as its input I found myself hacking away at this plate with abandon. It's really lovely to work on a plate you've decided to give up on. There's no pressure, you can just experiment. I'd like to cultivate that freedom in pieces I haven't given up on.

Today I attended the last math class of my college career. I felt strangely elated when I left the room and my new found health seemed to elevate further. It's another kind of freedom, one less thing in the way of painting and print making.