In Very Deed

Here We Go Again

2006-12-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

I was curious to see if I could remember my username and password to my blog. I couldn't. An hour later I finally guessed correctly.

Aaron is in finals. I am in the midst of twenty half finished paintings, a 70% completed pillowcase, a 90% finished book binding job (I glued my inside paper pattern upside down -> trip at the finish)and a very messy house. In the face of all that, I decided returning to my sad little blog was definitely the best option.

Due to my overly opinionated nature, I've decided to begin introducing an unsolicited advice of the whenever-I-post-a-blog-time (I would say week but that is WAY too optimistic.) This blog's advice: Check out Walton Ford. This guy has INSANE painting skills (Uses GOUACHE!!!!) and his work is absolutely Brilliant. He's Audubon on intellectual steroids.

Maybe this will help?:
On the Net:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/ford_walton.html
In Print:
Walton Ford: Tigers of Wrath, Horses of Instruction - Katz and Kazanjian from Harry N. Abrams Publishing

More Unsolicited Advice: If you have anyone in your life who truly matters to you, buy them this book for Christmas. If they do not value it, reconsider your relationship.

I would post an image but don't want to deal with copyright issues. Anyone know how that works on blogs??? I'm putting up an Audubon in hopes of wetting your appetite.

As you may have noticed...

2006-08-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed I have not written for a period of time roughly equivalent to forever. This is because
1. I died
2. The copier ate me
3. I became trapped in Wyoming
4. I graduated
5. Aliens were holding me hostage
(1. False 2. Fairly true, 3.OH the HOrrOR of that gigantic state- it's SO true! 4. Hurrah!-True 5. Possibly true, see # 3)

It's the only explanation I feel can explain my long absence for anyone that may have some of you wondering and others once again completely unconcerned with my existence.

And I got a cat! His name is Battle-cat in honor of He-Man, Aaron's favorite childhood cartoon. If anyone else out there has similar remembered fondness for the bulky blonde I highly suggest Sam Andersen's "By the Power of Gray Skull!" article at www.Slate.com Way too true for comfort. I'm just happy that I can now gloat over my morally superior childhood cartoons of David Gnome, Captain Planet, Scamper the Penguin, and Noozle (happy eco-friendly Koalas).

http://www.slate.com/id/2141626/

Behold! The stuff that dreams are made of....

2006-07-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

This is a copier. This is the reason there are interns. I am presently an intern. I intern for this copier. I've learned that the copier is much more complex than I ever expected. It's also more demanding. All the IQ I may possess is required to meet its expectations. My first day I failed miserably. But I have a dream that one day I will suceed, one day I too will get copies with backgrounds as pure and white as the driven snow, one day....

Me vs. The Monster

2006-07-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

So back in Provo my running was going really well even though my running partner ditched me for some tall dude. Anyway, I have found that as soon as I start to feel like I am becoming one with nature and the beauty of the most excellent routes somthing feels the need to challenge me. I have to agree with Darwin who said that nature is perpetually involved in a silent but deadly war.
So I was running enjoying the flowers and birds and my new ingenious route when this deranged monster comes barreling out at me. So I picked up some rocks, yelled at it to go home, and when it was about to rip out my jugular I pelted it and escaped with my life. (For the record I threw the first two stones wide, when it still didn't stop, I employed my deadly aim)
I thought I had communicated that I was the superior organism, not to be messed with, But lo and behold the next day when I turned on the street it was there, waiting for me! We went through the whole thing again and when I ran out of rocks I was forced to climb a small chain link fence and sit on the top until the owner finally came out and dragged the foaming snarling beast away saying "she's really nice, she just doesn't like strangers" That was a great consolation. I asked if they would be more careful about letting their dog roam and reknewed my hope in keeping my route.
The next three days the dog was waiting for me and even when I ran an hour later and I didn't turn on the road, it came after me! I tried to ask some fellow runners for advice but everyone said, just alter your route. BUT I like my route! And I'm HUMAN, why should I have to loose out over to illogical canine fury?
I like dogs but at this point I fill my hours with plans on how to exert my dominance and win out. People, our species didn't drag ourselves out of the jungle for this! This is epic. It's man vs. nature. If I loose my route, I have capitulated to a tyrant! I've even been considering mase (to the horror of many animal lovers around me). Anyone have any suggestions?

Blog Land

2006-06-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

So today I'm trying to avoid packing. I've worked on finances, replied to old emails, read and I just finished searching the land of blogs for Meldaus (they are inevitably related or german or play piano) So in the history of all the searchable blog land, I learned that someone misses my brother, someone ran into my sister about two years ago and I write a blog. That's as much as we digitally exist. I thought it was interesting.

To Do

2006-06-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to do right now. I'm getting ready to move, which means finding a place to move in New York City. I've been hunting Craigslist and contacting all sorts of people in an attempt to pay them lots of money for their ten flight walk up closet. In order to win them over I have to "tell a little about [myself]" This means I get to describe Aaron and my combined character in under a paragraph. After over a dozen attempts and way too much reflection, I'm ready to just write: we are the most boring people in the world!! Which is fairly true. We don't smoke, drink, party, have pets or kids. (Great for subleting) We watch the nature channel and like museums and used bookstores instead of clubs or fancy restraunts. We wear old clothes, play chess and are akwardly shy. Now that I have examined my life and feel incredibly pathetic, I wonder if we'll ever be able to get friends instead of just apartments.

Southern... I mean American Heritage

2006-05-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while. The semester ended and I managed to not trip while walking across the stage at commencement ceremonies, even though I did get very very dizzy and disoriented. Apparently I am not meant for the theater.
Now I have started my last set of classes. I am being taught to appreciate my heritage as an American thanks to my last GE requirement. This makes me feel a tad conflicted. My text encourages me to embrace the principles and beliefs my ancestors held sacred. As the descendant of slave holding southerners, this means putting away my ideals of universal equality for a firm system of racial hierarcy. Since my best friend is part Libyan I feel now is the best time to let her know that I can no longer be friends with her and from now on I will be wearing my white bed sheet to all her parties.
When I'm not planning my secesion from the Union, I'm doing a lot of painting in a watercolor class and an oil figure painting class. I would post my watercolors but nobody wants to look at a globby papaya except garage sale hunting grandmas. I have to say the vast majority of work is becoming fodder for.
Instead of the papaya here is a drawing (that will soon be watercolored) for an assignment that required a famous artist, a self portrait and a musician on a carousel. (Yeah, the illustration professors are a little crazy) I'm in the middle next to my hero John James Audobon, the bird killer and a happy banjo player. I wish I really had banjo accompaniement in life. Maybe one day....

What We've All Been Waiting For

2006-04-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm going to be graduating very very very soon. So soon in fact, that I am worried about whether or not I will be able to get done all those pesky things required to pass the classes I need for graduation. Hmm. I prefer not to think about that or the billion drawings I need to get done and instead post this my first image.
This is my sheep. He doesn't have a name but I love him and his erosion causing kind. I drew this while dreaming of Australia and worrying about gum disease, two things I think about fairly often. So this is in effect a little glance into what happens in my head. Enjoy

Spring is in the air

2006-04-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

Spring is finally warming up Provo. You can tell because along side all those pretty little flowers popping up on the lawn, there start to be those happy little twitter-patted couples.
I have friends, long standing single friends dropping like flies all around me. They'll mention there's there's some guy they've walked by once or twice and all of a sudden I'm spending my nights alone drawing by myself, running by myself, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for them, but it's a lot like being stuck watching Pride and Prejudice instead of watching King Kong. It's this private, serious happiness that's a lot harder to make socially acceptable jokes about.
I'm ready to move past this love stuff so the forest can catch fire and Bambi can become king of the forest. Aaron says it is because I am insensitive and not very sentimental. I don't think that's true. I cried when Kong died.

Once Upon A Time

2006-03-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

So Aaron and I got pictures back today from the five disposable cameras we've been using over the last three years we've known each other. While the memories were nice the pictures themselves were almost immediately depressing.
Why?
Because I am the least photogenic person in the world.
I use to be okay with that. In middle school, I had made my peace with those humiliating yearbook photos each year. I could tell myself that those hundreds of my peers wouldn't bother to remember me anyway and consequently would never look me up. And I was certainly not going to buy a yearbook to prove to my children how awful I could look as an adolescent.
After doing a tiny bit of genealogy I've come to realize that bad pictures of you are horrible horrible things. Why? Because that one picture, that one horrible picture from seventh grade or the time you just weren't ready is the picture, that is going to survive, the LONE one that all your posterity, all of history will know you from.
No matter how hard you try to destroy them all, to get rid of the evidence. It's going to happen. You don't have a prayer, as long as you have a mother.

The Return

2006-03-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

So after days of constent study, I figured out how to get back into my blog. It was a mighty effort but I persevered. And you know why? It's because of you: my loyal fans that check again and again hoping for some tidbit of information about my life. Yes, all one of you who does this by their own choice. I'm not counting Aaron because I made him look at it.
Anyway, with this revolutionary breakthrough you can expect more blogs in the future and pictures!

No Clear Motivation

2006-02-19T21:26:00.000-08:00

I remember in my distant past of eighth grade english class some instruction about always addressing the audience when writing. I also remember some vague direction about spelling correctly and proper comma placement. Since the later is almost certainly going to be noticeably absent to any English majors that happen across this blog, and the former consists of the one lonely soul that signed me up for this blog and is consequently being shunned, I stand with out much of an intention.
I suppose I'll just try this out for the joys of the experience. That and for the same reason I keep up the constant battle with my mutinous clock radio in the car. It's man vs. nature, the battle of the organism against its hostile environment. So whether it's wolves or programming the microwave display, I want to prove to myself I have the intelligence to survive. Not the intelligence needed for grammar concepts, just the intelligence to survive and help life battle on against the inert universe. Take that Microwave Dispaly! I'll have you one day!