My Bald Self

 

With my Metric CD as my companion, tonight I set forth to tackle an 18"x24" bald self-portrait of myself that is due tomorrow at 8 a.m.!

I think I will  leave the look to Natalie Portman... I just can't seem to pull it off...

Therapy

"Therapy: Treatment  by some rehabilitating or curative process."

I love to sing and I have been in various choirs since fourth grade. Though I practice often, rarely do people hear me sing by myself.  The only exceptions to this were my Grandpa Grace and my old childhood friend, they were the only two who I would/will sing on command for comfortably.

The reason for this isn't so much stage fright as it is that singing is sacred to me. It is my therapy. When my heart becomes so full it spills over, the result has always been that I sing. It is one of the few things that I do solely for me.

I am curious what are some of your therapies?

WAKEFUL NIGHT

I no longer know
what bridges over
are left
what roads between
are passable.
The frontier is closed
both to questions and to answers.

Still, there must be--
the crossing-point, the detour, the narrow foot-bridge--
the meeting-place!
Where we can talk
freely, as before...

But the only prospects left
are emptiness
and the unanswered letters--

-Osten Sjostrand

A.M.

This morning with messy hair, chapped lips, and yesterday's shirt still on, I am feeling completely and delightfully human (alive).


Time to start a new day :). 

Simply Lovely

ALLISON WELLS

Aging with Spunk

I have never been one to fear growing old, I do however fear becoming boring. Here's to women who never lose their "spunk." Ilona Royce Smithkin is 90 and is more full of life than most of the 20 yr olds I know.

Success

“Success is the progressive realization of worthy goals or ideals.”-Earl Nightingale

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."-Donald Kendall

Right Now...

BERTA PFIRSICH

It is 2 a.m., I am listening to Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees. My eyes are glazed over, and I no longer want to work. I want to sleep!

Monday Painting

For the first time in a long time I can say I am very, very happy it is Monday. Why is that you ask? Because here in the States it is Presidents' Day, which means I get the day off from both work and school! I hope that everyone is having a great holiday.  I have used mine mainly to work on a children's fairytale painting for my illustration class. The image above is how it looks so far, I still have a ways to go with it. Also, I apologize for the messy work space, the zebra printed thing in the upper corner is a blanket... I had to hang it up to block out the sun when it was setting.

The Blues

B H L D N

I am blue because sadly these lovelies are all out of my budget :(

Improve Your Vocabulary and Fight Hunger.

When I was a sophomore in high school my English teacher, Ms. Rock, gave us a link to a website that both improves one's vocabulary and gives one a chance to fight world hunger. Freerice.com is a vocabulary game. With each question you answer correctly 10 grains of rice will be donated by Freerice's sponsors to help people living in poverty. The game starts out easy and gets harder as you progress.

If you are looking to sound a little smarter when you speak, fight hunger or kill some time stop by freerice.com and play! Its a win-win situation!

The Unknown

 "If we don’t offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes don’t lift to the horizon; our ears don’t hear the sounds around us. The edge is off our experience, and we pass our days in routine that is both comfortable and limiting. We wake up one day and find that we have lost our dreams in order to protect our days.

Don’t let yourself become one of these people. The fear of the unknown and the lure of the comfortable will conspire to keep you from taking the chances the traveler has to take."

 -Kent Nerburn, Letters to My Son

I Wanna Dance With Somebody!

Why yes, I did start my morning off getting ready with this song.

Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance With Somebody 1987

Friday the 18th

Hello all,

I have decided to can the idea of only journaling on Sunday. Forget I ever mentioned it. While it still remains true that most of my free time to write will be on that day I prefer to write as it comes to me. Plus I would rather have lots of little posts than one gigantic post a week.

Without further ado, here is my journal entry for today!

-Morning & Early Afternoon- 

This morning I woke up early and had my hair cut, colored, and styled. I felt like such a girl and I loved it!

Shortly after I had my hair styled my work held a chocolate fondue party! They really went all out with it. There were many different kinds of chocolates to choose from, my favorite being the melted white chocolate dip yum! It was great to be paid to eat chocolate and hang out with my friends!

- Afternoon - 

I am a member of Students for International Development at BYU and it will soon be time for the annual Hunger Banquet they host to raise awareness about global poverty and to celebrate human dignity. Last year the organization hosted a creative competition for the event and I learned this afternoon that they are doing it again this year, woo-hoo! 

This year the competition is to promote their theme: "Peace by Piece." Artists can turn in pieces that express the theme with various mediums. I want to submit a painting. :)

 -Night (Glorious Night)-

 Tonight the moon was bright and the art was great! I went up to Salt Lake City to see the Big-Eyed Women show.

"Big-Eyed Women is a group exhibition of Utah female artists who meet together periodically in order to celebrate womanhood through various forms of creativity. These women represent diverse life experiences and backgrounds. They join together to explore the common strands that are woven throughout their lives as women. Their art touches on universal themes tied to womanhood." 

Okay, so I ripped that quote right off the flyer for the show...but honestly, I couldn't have written or described it any better... I went tonight to meet with the artists and to support my friend Emily's work (I wrote about one of her paintings earlier click here to view).  I was impressed with the gallery, the art, and the turn out. I was even able to leave with some poetry-creative writing books. Can you say score?

 Me being a dork by the art sign.

  

  

The girl in the red sweater is Emily! This is one of the paintings she did, isn't it great?!

 

Heather and Emily by her painting

 

After the leaving the gallery I went and ate dinner at the Rio Grande, a restaurant that according to many hasn't changed at all in 40 yrs. Their food is sooo good! If you are ever in Salt Lake City stop by there and order the #6. You will thank me.

-Conclusion-

Well, it is really late here where I am writing. To conclude, today was an eventful day, the weather was lovely and lots of good things took place. I hope that you all have a wonderful night!

Later days!

Oh Emily :)

GIFSoup

Happening Now

At Midnight Belgium will claim the world record for the longest time without a government. Unlike the previous record holder, Iraq, Belgium (both French and Dutch speakers) looks at the record as an excuse to party and protest with humor.

The protests include:

• Growing beards (There is even a website called: "Beards for Belgium") 
• In Brussels, Ghent, and Leuven there will be free fries (Belgium's national dish)
• In many cities people will simply party.
  

I know that the lack of a government is serious, but who wouldn't appreciate the humorous protests? Here's to you Belgium, way to beat the world record! I wish I could be there to celebrate and eat fries (or as you would call them "chips") with you.

Sources:
BBC
NDTV

Journal

Hello,

I wrote and originally intended to post this on Sunday. From now on it is my wish to use Sunday as my day to document what has happened during my week. When the semester is over and I have more free time this may change, but I feel that Sunday is the perfect day to publish my weekly adventures. This post will cover two weeks so it may be a bit lengthy. Sorry!

School and Work

(We might as well knock this topic out first)

I haven't been as busy as I am now in a long time. I have sacrificed so much sleep for school and various work projects. Four nights last week I didn't sleep at all and I am still fighting to stay caught up with everything. Its funny when I was a little girl I used to fight and struggle so hard when my parents would try to put me to bed. To me the night seemed magical and mysterious, I felt that I wasted it with sleep. Many times I would lay in bed and think: "I can't wait until I grow up and can stay up ALL night!" I guess it's true when they say be careful what you wish for. If I'd only known that a time would come when I would be lucky and praying for time to sleep!

What are the culprits of my sleep deprivation? A massive essay for my ancient civilization class, a test in another, an outside figure study (the stupid thing had to be drawn on a HUGE scale), a type specimen book, and two paintings. The type specimens in my class turned out awesome. I wish that I could post pictures of them.

Even though I miss sleep I really enjoy the classes I am taking and am happy that I didn't try and lighten my load. In a bazaar way I welcome the heavy workload. You see the last few months my mind has really been stuck on certain things (okay fine a person) and with so much to get done I haven't had time to worry and stress about anything else.

Moving on to...

Last, Last Friday (Aka Feb 4th)

Lately I have been spending time with my mom and my family. My mom works at a university and last Friday she was able to check out a theater room and we watched the 25th Anniversary Edition of Les Miserables. I grew up listening to the 10th Anniversary Edition and I will never fully be able to describe how much this musical moves and inspires me. If I was a crying-type-person I would be in tears by the time the preacher gives Valjean the candle holders every time.

Among the many, many beautiful lines and verses in this musical my favorite is this:

"Take my love,
For love is everlasting.

And remember
The truth that once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God!"

At the end of the 25th Anniversary Edition they brought out 4 Valjean's who made the musical famous and had them sing "Bring Him Home." Although Alfie Boe is amazing the first Valjean who sings, Colm Wilkinson, is and always will be my favorite. Please watch it, it is beautiful.


After we watched the musical my mom and I went to the Gallery Stroll that takes place the first Friday of the month (click here to read more about it) here in Provo and saw a bunch of good art. My illustration program put on a show for the event as well. There was live music, food, and all sorts of fun.

Saturday the 5th

(Hip-Hop Night)

 Something people don't know about me is that I love hip-hop (well...good hip-hop that is), especially when it comes to dancing purposes. On Saturday my friends' bands Chance Lewis and Apt played. It was Adam's band Apt's first show and I have to say I liked it. Adam did a good job!

Skipping to the Next week and the following Saturday...

Saturday the 12th

(The Painting, The Bargain, and
The Bad Love Poetry Reading)

My friend (who happens to be an amazing artist) Emily did a painting entitled "She Saw Pearls." And guess who the model was? None other than me :). The painting along with a few others is now hanging up in a Barnes and Noble in Sandy and yes I was vain enough that I had to go get a picture by it!


While I was at the bookshop I found a treasure in the bargain book pile! For those who may not know I am OBSESSED with the ocean, marine life...and well all things water related. This obsession surfaces a lot in my art, making a book all about the anatomy of ocean creatures a very welcome addition to my bookshelf. :)

Later that evening my friends and I attended a "Bad Love Poetry Reading" at the Parlor. It was so much fun! I ended up reading a poem that I had written in middle school (it was bad) and my friend wrote and read a poem about the band White Stripes splitting up. My favorite though, was when a girl stood up and announced that her poem was called "Love on the Beach" and proceeded to make dolphin, seagull and whale noises.

Happy Valentines Day

Real Simple

I am wishing all of you lovely people a happy Valentine's Day! I hope you were able to spend it with someone special.

To all of my single friends and readers: This is your year! ;)

Live Our Lives In Color

"Gray is out. Gloom is gone. It’s time to live our lives in color!"

There are many ways to brighten the world around us. I recently discovered and signed up for a project that is too cool not to share! In March of last year, Dulux Paint started an international outreach project called "Lets Colour" to spread color to drab and dreary regions of the world. Their hope is that in transforming gray and weathered spaces (including houses, schools, bus stops, town squares...etc) to brightly colored spaces they will transform the communities and the people within them as well.

Stop by their site, the project's blog records the outcome in each city, as well as the locals' color choices and where their inspiration comes from. If you are like me and can't just drop everything and travel to places like India or Brazil at the current time don't fret! There are lots of ways to be a part of this neat project.

Brian Dwyer extended an invitation on his blog for people to join saying: "To those of you reading who favor brilliance and excitement over the mundane and depressing, I highly recommend picking up a paint brush and giving it a shot sometime."

What are we waiting for? Lets start coloring! :)

Sources:
Let's Colour
Bust Magazine

To Make : Pantone Cookies!

As an aspiring artist and designer I am very familiar with pantone chips. I love them and I use them often when I am trying to find just the right hue or create a good color pallet. I also am very familiar with and love cookies. So I was very excited when I found the work the designer Kim Neill featured on Fossil's archive page. This designer combines the best of both worlds!

Neill says that she came up with this clever idea when she discovered some empty pantone tins while searching through an art supply store. When she saw them she thought "what better a way to fill the tins than with cookies?"

The best part is that on her website she gives the recipe to make them! I am trying to put together a show to display my work and maybe I will serve these delectable goodies. :)

Check out Neill’s page and look at her recipe for the cookies Here.

Wish I had Known About This!!!

Artclash writes:

"It's time to get ready for our 7th Annual Fun-A-Day project, happening in January 2011! The premise is simple: pick a project (take a photograph, make the bed, draw a picture, bake a cake, etc), do it every day in January*, then show your work the following month in a big group show. Browse our photo archives for inspiration, and post your project ideas in the form below!

If you would like to participate, submit your project by the submission deadline for the show you want to be in (usually in the first or second week of February*). We will post submission guides and show information on this website as soon as those details are available. No registration required and we show all work we receive!"

I really wish I had known about this earlier! It would have been so fun!

Hey All My Fellow Blog Followers!

Well its official, I have become a bit addicted to blog following (also known as blog-stalking...however, I prefer the first term). You know what? I am glad that I have because I discovered that my friends are very good writers!


If you are looking for a good read check out my friend Mallory's blog. To get to her page you can click here or, she recently did a really good post on beauty that you can click here to read.

----

I came back to this post because I had to add another blog to it. I didn't ask permission and I will remove it from this post if my friend wishes. But Kelsey's blog "and Everything" is one of the best I have read. Her writing always moves me to be true to myself and makes me want to be better. I hope that she goes on to publish something someday. Click here to view her page.

Stargazing: The North America Nebula

Wow this is crazy! In our galaxy there is an emission nebula (a cluster of young forming stars) that looks remarkably like North America. Look at the resemblance of the Gulf of Mexico!

Anyway, even though astronomers have known about this nebula for a while, it showed up in news recently because a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of the North America nebula shows more than 2,000 new, candidate young stars in the region, where only about 200 were known before.

Everyone is excited about the discovery and how the infrared image is so different from that of the visible image...but I am still freaking out about how the nebula looks in visible light.

Source: NASA

I am fairly certain that...

Butter

&

Salt

Are going to be my downfall...