A Country Hello

Good day, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to you all!

Here I am, sitting in my creaky, four poster bed in my old green and purple room at my parent's house, in Middle of Nowhere country, two and a half hours away from Red Deer, 23 days after I arrived back home to spend my holidays. It has been the most restful three weeks of my life, and I am so grateful to have such a loving place to come home to.

School ended on a not-so-great note, with a lot of people frustrated or even angry at me and how I've been running the Visual Art Society. It was an incredibly stressful week, with getting all of my classes and assignments finished, getting my artwork documented, and running a three-day art sale for my classmates. In all the chaos I'm afraid I stepped on a few toes and ruffled a few feathers. It was an unfortunate situation, but I have to remind myself constantly not to be too hard on myself. I am running a society, in a position, where there were no previous rules or guidelines, and no one to help me. I am running blind, making up the rules as I go, and unfortunately the only notice I get is when I do something wrong. It's a tricky situation, and sometimes I wonder why I got myself involved in something so political, but then I remind myself that I chose to do this, and good things come from it as well; not just the bad. Next semester we're going to be running things differently, doing things differently, in hopes of pleasing the masses, and I have faith that it will go smoother. I am thankful and blessed to have such an amazing executive team, with my VP, Secretary, and Treasurer all being capable and understanding women, here to help me and each other. Next semester we will be focusing more on workshops and less on sales, and I think I will be able to accomplish all I hoped to accomplish by the end of my run.

That being said, this is really the first time I have thought about the society, or school for that matter, since I left for break. It has been a wonderful, stress-free time away from everyone, and spent in the loving arms of my family, friends, and boyfriend. It's nice to remember how to breathe. Sometimes it gets hard to breathe in the city, and it's important to take a step back and find some oxygen. If that means running away and escaping to better climate, so be it.

If you're in school right now, I hope your Christmas break was as restful and rejuvenating as you needed it to be, and that you enter back into school with new vigor and energy. I myself have been dreaming and planning for my new upcoming projects, a new series in painting, and a new goal for ceramics. I have seven courses this semester, as I did last semester, and both semesters last year, so it's not new to me. However, deep down I really wish I only had the two; painting and ceramics; so I can truly spend all my time and energy on them. However, I trust that I will continue to learn all the skills of time management and bullshitting my assignments.. err.. rather ACCOMPLISHING my assignments in a timely manner. As we all do, of course... right? No all-nighters and stressful weekends for us!

I'll stick to more practical new years resolutions. Like, be a nicer person. I make that resolution every year, actually. Less fighting, more cooperating, more biting of my tongue. It usually lasts about 48 hours. I would like it to last longer than that this time.

Here's to the best!

Arting It Up

Hello! Yes I am still here, and yes I am still making art! I tell you, this school year is absolutely insane. I cannot remember a time where I have been so outrageously busy as I have been the past four weeks. But I digress - My sister just highlighted me in her blog today (click here!), and I figured this is the perfect time to update all my social media! May as well, so people know I'm still active. I guess.. I'm very bad at this social media thing. But at any rate, here we are! On my right, we have Barbie Antoinette for my Art History project. I am recreating a dress from Marie Antoinette's time made from tissue paper. She's a work in progress, but I'm having fun.

Below we have my finished Season Series from Ceramics. All glazed and fired and looking pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself.

 We have Spring on the left and Autumn on the right.

 And Winter on the left and Summer on the right.

 I had a particularly good day in drawing today, knocking off two impressive (for me) 15-minute drawings of one of our models, and two equally as impressive 1-hr long drawings of one of our other models, both done in chalk pastel (below).

 A couple self portraits. The one on the left was done a couple weeks ago, the left page being a line drawing and the right being tonal. The image on the right is an unfinished composition of three self portraits, but the top left face is complete and I am very happy with it.

Last but never least we have painting. The one on the left was for our Halloween project called "Dance with Death", and I decided to do death of religion and get all symbolic. Which I did and it was great, but I would have liked to maybe do another one that was actually scary and more Halloweeny. Oh well. On the right I have a splatter painting that I did today that I think is rather neat and I would like to make more of them. And so I am. Because they're fun. I'm also experimenting with colour and colour mixing. There are colours that can mix with other colours, and there are colours that should never touch each other. I am experimenting with those pallettes and I am excited to see what sorts of colours I can come up with.

In the meantime I am staying busy with the Visual Art Society. We just had our first art sale and we are planning for our Christmas sale taking place in a couple of weeks here. Ain't no rest for the wicked, that's for sure!

Until next time, peace and love my pretties :)

Jewelry

The other day the VAS (Visual Art Society) had an art sale, and I made over fifty pairs of earrings in hopes of making some cash. I think I've sold about ten pairs, and the rest I am sending home with my mom to sell in her giftshop. I thought I would post some of the pictures on here to give you guys an idea of the kind of jewelry I have been working on.

Gone. Given to my sister.

Sold.

Sold.

Sold.

Sold.

Gone. Given to my sister.

Sold.

Sold.

Sold.

Sold.

Sold.