Good news and bad news

Bad news first: My camera gave up the ghost...breathed its last...went to camera heaven...basically it died. It was on the fritz for awhile...I knew it was going to happen. Still, I am very sad about this.

Good news: I'm home for Spring Break! And my brother is going to graciously allow me (I'm 99% sure) to borrow his camera for the rest of the semester. Isn't he the bee's knees? :)

I just got home today. I'm completely exhausted! I stayed at school until today because NCECA is in Philly this year and it starts Tuesday, but I'm not going. Our school held a pre-conference and ceramic artists Sarah Jaeger, Steve Godfrey, Tom Bartel and Von Venhuizen came to do demos and lectures for us before they went to NCECA tomorrow. It was really cool to meet them. One of the fun things about going to events like this is that you meet people who enjoy the same things you do and you can get a lot of information and ideas from these people. Another cool thing is that these guys aren't "hoity-toity" just because they're well-known ceramists. They're really friendly, casual people. A lot of them are professors at universities just like my professors. They're approachable, funny, and happy and willing to answer any questions you may have. They also occasionally mess up their work or encounter problems that they have to solve while working and that is encouraging to see professional potters still have to deal with problems that I deal with. Clay seems to have a mind of its own. It's good to know that the experts still are learning new things about it each time they handle it. In fact, Von and Tom had this conversation while they were working about a talk Von had with a student who was afraid to mess up something they were working on. He told them that you learn best from mistakes. You learn a whole lot more about what you can or cannot do with clay when you mess something up than you do when you get something to work. Sarah Jaeger also said that it's the whole idea that you learn something new about clay every day that keeps her coming back to work with it. She said if she knew everything about it and there was no challenge she would lose interest. Hearing these artists say that was so encouraging because I am such a perfectionist sometimes with my work and even though I'm not afraid to ruin a mug or a bowl while trying something new, I get frustrated when I feel like I'm not catching on fast enough.

So since my camera died I didn't get to take pictures the whole time I was there. My friend came with me this afternoon though and allowed me to use her camera to take pictures so once I get copies of those I'll upload them to this post! For now I have a couple of homework assignments to work on and aside from those I intend to thoroughly enjoy my time off school/work and have fun with my family and friends. A very special person is turning a year old on April Fools Day! That's right! My niece is almost a year old. I just can't believe how quickly this year went by. My baby is growing so fast! I am going to try to make her a little present...not sure what yet though. But that will give me something to work on before Thursday!

I'll try to update some stuff later. For now though I'm going to bed. A tea party with my sisters and friends is on the agenda for tomorrow...it's SO good to be home! :)

Locker Art

I have classes upstairs in our school twice a week and to get to my classrooms I have to walk past all the lockers. I've been saying for months now that I'm going to photograph the lockers and I only now have gotten to it. Of course, some of the stuff on the lockers is obscene, but there are a few fun things to look at. I particularly enjoy the ongoing saga of Samurai Cat and Ninja Goldfish (pictured below), but also thought some of the other things were cute too. Have a peek:

Here and there...it's been quite a week!

I haven't been so busy in ages! I had no idea art school was so exhausting! Luckily this weekend I was able to fit in a few days of rest since my week was very tiring. On Friday I went out with my roomies to go to a couple of stores and then we got dinner. Saturday I slept in and worked. Today...ahh, Sundays....today I went to church (I love my church!), went on a picnic and a 6 mile hike, went to a Bible study and had a work meeting. It was a great day! And the weather was in the 70s...you couldn't ask for a more beautiful weekend.

Here are some pictures...My roomies and Dash. He's my roomie's friend from Swing dancing class.

I was pretending to have fallen off the wall I was climbing. I think I could actually get into rock climbing.

It's warm enough for skirts and flip flops. Hello, Spring! I missed you!

My roomie and I have been stealing...er, that is collecting rocks for a Bible study project. We've been picking up rocks all semester and we're going to paint them. We've got about 55 and we don't need anymore. I still get the urge to pick up rocks while I'm walking back and forth to classes though. :)

This is me with my RA, Amanda. She is a sweetie. All my RAs are pretty awesome. I'll miss them next year. I'm going to be getting an apartment with my roomies and another friend. I also signed up to study in China next fall with the ceramics department. If I can figure out a way to pay for it without going into crazy debt then I'll be living in China for about 3 and a half months. Scary and exciting all at the same time! I hope it all works out!

It's been kinda muggy around here lately...

It's almost looking like I don't do anything with ceramics anymore! I never post on it it seems. In actuality I've been making quite a few things. I've had 2 more critiques since the Admiral. We're back on the wheel now. I love it! As my teacher said (in reference to throwing on the wheel), "there's no place like home." Yes, that is very droll. :)

Here is a little mug I threw and had salt-fired. I didn't use any glazes on it or anything. I really like how it came out. It reminds me of the beach for some reason. I guess because it looks like sand. I've got about 15 more that have been bisque fired and glazed, but haven't been fired again yet. I also threw a few more last night. I have this idea for graffiti mugs...I'm researching Banksy for an artist powerpoint project and his work is somewhat inspiring me to graffiti my mugs. I'll let you know if this goes anywhere. :)


I feel like I can see a definite improvement in my mugs. They're thinner and the handles are better. It makes me happy! I thought I would never figure them out but I learned a new way to make and attach handles and it works much better for me than the old way did. Another thing I learned to do was make slip! I made a new red slip because our old one kept burning out when it was fired for the second time. I'd like to try to make a yellow and maybe purple slip too! My teacher said he wouldn't mind if I did. It's just a matter of finding time for it. I can't believe this semester is getting so close to being finished!

I glazed a bunch of my mugs and upon my teacher's advice drew sketches of each mug I've made and wrote down what I used to glaze it. He said this is a good idea because sometimes you'll do crazy stuff to a piece while glazing and it will come out really good or really bad. Either way you'll want to remember what you did so you can repeat it or so you know not to repeat it. So here are a few pictures of my sketches and notes.
I can't wait to see if they turn out alright. Glazing always makes me a bit nervous because sometimes my stuff comes out so ugly! I'm hoping that this time when we unload it I'll be happy with the results!

I'll try to get more pictures when I have something to show for my work!

I draw such exciting things!

I think our still life drawings are boring. I would like to draw something besides silverware, ladders, boxes, jars, etc. I understand we are going to be drawing the figure when we get back from spring break. I think that entails drawing nudes. I don't want to draw anything that exciting. Why can't we have a happy medium?In the meantime, this is my homework that I turned in a day late because that fork was giving me a fit! I'm not exactly pleased with it still, but I'm glad it's done! This past week was exhausting! I didn't get to bed before 3 am all week and had to be up between 7:30 and 9 am each morning. On Friday night I made it a point to be in bed by midnight. However, at 3 am some crazy drunk guy was pounding on the door and trying to key into my room. I was not amused! I called my RA and woke her up and she took care of it, thankfully. I still managed to go back to sleep until 11:30 am. I think I was catching up on my lost sleep from the week. I am now officially ready for Spring Break!

As a side note, I think college is great training for parenthood. I am realizing that I can function (maybe not super efficiently, but I still manage) on 3-6 hours of sleep and then manage a full day of classes, work, Bible studies and homework. Sure it's not really preparing me for actual parenthood, just the sleep deprivation part.

Okay, that was all. :)

Silhouette Project

In my 2D design class I had to pair off with someone and create a silhouette that demonstrated some form of conflict. My partner and I decided to do a storm scene with a tornado. We decided to make our tornado 3D by having it come off the paper. We even added a strobe light for special effects. We were going to try to have a whole bunch of other cool stuff like a fan blowing things around inside the tornado and storm sounds and we were even thinking about bringing in spray bottles and squirting people while they looked at it. In the end we just had the strobe light though. :( Oh well, it was still pretty cool. It was too awkward for me to photograph, especially since it was hung in a narrow hallway so I videoed it instead. This way you can see the strobe light too. We wanted to put the strobe light inside the tornado, but it didn't end up working out. Instead we had to put it on a stool and let it shine on it from the outside.

Check it out!


Sorry for the poor quality of the video...pretend it's awesome, okay? :)

photo-shopping

This week has been nuts. And it's only Tuesday. :( I went home this past weekend and while it was good to see my family again, I got behind in my homework! Not so good. I haven't been prepared at all for any of my classes. But on a lighter note, it is only Tuesday so even though I've gotten off to a shaky start, hopefully I'll end the week with more productivity.

My partner and I finished the Tornado silhouette project. I think it looked pretty good. :) For my next project I have to do a self portrait and use magazine clippings to "paint" the color on. It's kind of confusing to explain, but basically we have a lot of artistic license with this project. So today I am going to show you what the "rough draft" of my self portrait will look like. I took this picture by Botticelli....
And superimposed my face on it....
and I may try to change the colors around a bit before I start the project. I think we look a lot a like. When I first saw this painting online I thought we looked similar enough that it would be fun to put my face on hers, but now I think we look almost eerily alike.

It's kinda creepy and fun. :)

The Admiral

This is my latest project in my ceramics class. We had to slab or model a palm-sized object or do a self-portrait bust. My classmate is an excellent sculptor and he did a self-portrait of himself. I knew I would not be able to do that so I went out and bought a kids' toy and decided to model it. I went to Wal-mart and all they had was Strawberry Shortcake and Avatar figures so when I found this little Star Wars alien I chose him. Our finished project had to be about a foot tall. I think this guy is a bit taller than that.

He was so fun to make. I would have never picked this project for myself. I like throwing and am interested in slab-building, but I would never of my own accord make a model of something as useless as an alien. As it turns out, he is my favorite object I've ever made. I'm SO glad my teacher gave us this assignment. Even if I never do anything with the Admiral, I had a lot of fun making him and I learned some stuff while making him. It was great. I hope I get a good grade on him! I'll try to update this with a picture of the toy I modeled it after.

Bringin' back the hairbow...

Paper-napkin style! :) Not really. We were just being silly. I love being a girl and pal-ing around with my girlfriends. It's so fun to be able to talk about girly stuff and make silly paper-napkin hairbows and share our lives. I've had the opportunity to meet some wonderful girl friends up here. We have fun together. We all went to Campus Crusade for Christ on Thursday and afterwards we went up to the student center to hang out and get free food. Molly and me

Whitney and Courteney

Amanda thinks something is really funny!

All of us girls. :) Unfortunately, my camera has been on the fritz lately. I'm worried that it got too wet when I took it outside during the snowstorm last weekend. It's been a trusty camera for the past few years...hopefully it will last a bit longer. It's really hard to get a clear picture and lately it won't turn on properly. Pleeease don't die, camera! I need you!

I finished a ceramics project. I'll try to get pictures soon!

Sunday, Sunday...

So far we have been surviving our cold, snowy weather. I am seriously not used to this much snow. It snows every day it seems. And the roads are getting all messed up. My little car doesn't like it very much. And our city won't scrape the sidewalks which the students hate! snow

I went to church today with my friend. I only started going to this church since the beginning of this semester and I can't say how much I like it there. The teacher is really good and I come away with a lot each week. I feel so blessed to go there. It seems like a young church. It's small and they meet in an old theatre downtown. A lot of people from Campus Crusade for Christ go there too so I was pleasantly surprised when I visited and recognized or knew quite a few people. I go to a small group Bible study that meets in the home of one of the couples and in just a few weeks I feel like I'm already a part of that body of Christ. It's a blessing.

After church my friend and I went across the street to a little restaurant called Madeline's. We go there occasionally after church for lunch and it's a cool little place. It seems like everything is home-made, not heated out of a package which we all appreciate. :) I enjoy places like that much more than a chain restaurant.

Ha ha, I included this picture of the ladies' restroom. It's kind of an intense room...so purple and cheetah-ey...it makes me laugh. We are considering finding a guy friend to go into the mens' restroom to take a picture so we can tell if it is as wildly decorated. We are curious. Hee hee.

So it's Valentines Day. On Friday nights I go to a Women's Bible study that is through Campus Crusade for Christ. It's awesome. I love ladies' Bible studies. So on Friday the guys' Bible study gave a big bouquet of roses to the girls at the womens' Bible study. I don't really buy into this holiday. I think it's kind of silly. But I know I wasn't the only girl who thought it was really sweet of them. :) Nice move, guys! On the subject of Valentines day so many people I know are bummed because they don't have dates. It is kind of funny actually. Some years I am bummed too, but this year I don't really mind not having a date or valentine. I'm going to my friend's house tonight with my roommate to watch chick-flicks and hang out (I'm sure chocolate will be involved *smile*) for the holiday. Whether or not I have a special guy friend for Valentines day I feel so incredibly loved by my family, dear friends and especially by Christ. I can't say enough how amazing it is to me that He loves me. This semester I have become more aware than I ever was of how greatly He loves us. I mess up so often and am so selfish and act in what I think are my best interests and He always forgives; always takes me back, builds me up and then gives me another chance. Who else does that?

I hope your Valentines day is full of love from the people around you. Have a marvelous day!

Drawing class

My teacher has been making us do still life sketches. We're going to start working with value this week.
I still don't draw very well. At all. But I am excited that my drawing resembles the still life my teacher set up.
I am glad to announce that I no longer am about to have a panic attack when I go into that class. The first class we had my teacher set up a skeleton in the middle of the room and said, "okay, everyone draw this." I almost packed everything up and left. I was like, "there is NO way I can do that...no way!" But I didn't run away screaming, I stayed. And it's cool because I can see some improvements! This makes me so happy!

Snowstorm!

We had a snowstorm here! School is closed tomorrow...we never close! This is so exciting! It's my second snow day EVER! We got about 15 inches of snow here. Back home they have about 3 feet! 15 inches is enough trouble to maneuver in. I've never even seen three feet of snow.
(layering up on our gloves...next item to buy: insulated gloves! I didn't even think to get any until this storm hit!)

Anyway, I usually hate snow. I complain about it and say how terrible it is. But I think I like snow up here. This past weekend has been fun! My dear friend got stranded at my dorm with me and my roomie (who also is my dear friend) for two nights and we had a blast together! We got Nutella and pretzels and Reisens and played outside, listened to music, watched youtube videos of Christian 80s rock bands (their hair is hil-hair-ious), veggie tales silly songs with Larry (who knew there were so many?), made awesome dinosaur sandwiches and talked...talked...talked. I also got to see my sister and her husband and my niece who were traveling back home this weekend. Thankfully they made it back safely!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend! I'm so glad I don't have to go to classes tomorrow! It's so exciting!Cleaning my car. My RA was kind enough to lend me his scraper so I could get the snow off my car so I could get into my car to get my scraper. I'm wearing my new $3 hat! It's totally awesome!

Beautiful snow-covered branches.

The little seating area outside our dorm.

Our Resident Faculty Leaders brought food over from the dining halls and cooked a bunch of hotdogs for us so we wouldn't have to walk down to the dining hall for lunch. They also hosted a pancake dinner for us.

This is one of the guys from my dorm. He and his best friends who live here are sort of like a "breakfast club." We've got the smart guy, the jock, the quiet one and the clown. They come to our dorm Bible study and they're hilarious. This guy was running around outside WITHOUT SHOES!!!! I told him to "get thee inside and put some socks on, fool!" These freshmen (shakes head)...We made a trip to the store to get...um...provisions. Of candy and such. Well, we like to be prepared!We went outside at night while we only had about 6 inches.

Boy, do I look 80s here or what?

Some of the people from my dorm went sledding down one of the big hills. They were having so much fun! We opted out of sledding, but we still had fun too.Cold!

Unfortunately, you can't see it here, but it was so sparkly and it looked like glitter. Or a giant opal or something.
Okay, these dinosaur sandwich cutters are quite possibly the best 3 dollars I ever spent, (besides my new most favorite hat in the world which was also three dollars it has ear flaps and is lined with fleece. And it's fairisle...completely amazing!). Lunch is so much fun now!
And the next day the sun came out for awhile. It was so pretty to see the blue sky! It went away pretty quickly and it even was flurrying again today. We sure have had a cold, snowy winter this year! I can't say it enough, I'm so excited to have a snowday tomorrow! The gym will be open and hopefully the studio will be too. If so, then I think tomorrow is going to be a really fun day!

Snowy weekend = productivity! And me finishing my homework before 4 AM!

Never have I been so grateful for my iPod as I have been these past three weeks. It makes it so much easier to focus while doing homework. :) I got a lot done this weekend. All my sketches for my drawing class and my 100 Implied Lines project for 2-D design class. I never made it into the studio to play because I was too busy.Fun items: sketchbook, pencil, iPod, kneaded eraser (who knew how much fun erasers are?), and m&ms...I have fun homework. Well, until my hand cramps up it's fun!
Finished project! It's due at noon tomorrow! So glad I finished it at 11:50 pm instead of 4:15 am like I seem to have been doing right before my critiques.

It's amazing how these past couple of weeks I have been reminded constantly of how much Jesus loves me and all of us. I have always known that Jesus loves us (John 3:16), but now I'm beginning to understand how He loves us. I guess there is a difference in knowing and understanding something. I'm adopting Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. Eph 3:14-21. Between the sermons I've heard at church these past couple of weeks, the lessons from the Bible studies I go to and what I've read in my own studies of the Bible recently I am blown away by how much He loves us. The cool thing is it's not just talk. It's action! He continuously blesses us, loves us, teaches us, disciplines us, forgives us...he repeatedly takes us back when we hurt Him. I always thought of God as being above being hurt, but we do hurt Him when we disobey or don't trust Him. But he is so patient and faithful...He never gives up on us. When I slow down enough to actually think about it it is such a wonderful reminder. The maker of the universe LOVES ME!!! Now if only I could keep up with the "slowing down enough to actually think about it" part...I took a 3 hour nap today. It was so nice. I needed it so badly! I am way behind on my sleep!

I'm thankful for a day of rest, productivity and fellowship. Today was such a blessing.