My concentration is an exploration of surrealism with animals. I want to focus on a juxtaposition of two regular things that creates a new perspective on the objects. The original french surrealists had many methods of tapping into the subconscious to create works of art. These methods are the inspirations for my art work. My art work shed a new light on everyday things, and they force the viewer to think about things from a new perspective.

This piece is a piece where the fish are supposed to melt into the water as if they are half fish, real and half water. This would add a surreal element to these beautiful fish. Unfortunately I feel that the original idea did not translate well in to the piece. I like the movement of the little red fish, but the other two seem a bit static. I kept variety by making the fish of various species and colors, however I feel the balance of the piece brings all the fishes together well. I fell the fish were done well technically, but the background is a bit messy and perhaps lacking a middle ground. AL in all I feel the final product did not match the idea i had in my head, but I still like the fish and the watery designs I super imposed onto them.

On night I awoke with an idea for a painting. I wanted to create jellyfish that were made of thousand of little butterflies. I have tried multiple time now to create this image in my head. This attempt is the closest I have come, however I am missing one important piece. Jellyfish are translucent, not opaque, also butterflies overlap each other and all fly in a similar directions. While I did not capture these important bits I still love this piece. It took hours to draw each little butterfly and even longer to color them in. It was a labor of love and I would be crazy not to appreciate this piece, due to its intricacy alone. I like the balance of this peice and the movement of all the little butterflies. Some negative points are the scratchyness of the upper butterflies due to adding too many layers of pencil.

This weekend I did a massive art cram to create three 16X20" drawings for my application to RISD. Initially I thought that I would have to work hard, but I would still be able to sleep. I was wrong. On Saturday I spent half the day cleaning my room to make my brain less cluttered and then started my first drawing. It was a drawing that utilized both sides of the paper. i started at 4 pm. Fast forward 12 hours and there's me, still only working on one side of the drawing and getting more and more exhausted by the minute. Finally at 4 30 I go to bed, thinking tat i wil just wake up and draw all day Sunday. Sunday morning rolls around. Sunday afternoon rolls around. And around one o'clock I wake up and get cleaned up and eat breakfast. I finish side one. At this point Im telling myself that really i have four drawings, and i have finished one, and really the side I already finished was the hardest side. so everything else will be easy from here on out. Then there's valentines dinner which lasts a few hours. And I am back to work at 9pm. at about 3 in the morning drawing one is finally completed. I have to get the drawings and two essays in the mail by 3 the next day. i would be panicking except I am so tired I can't function. I fall asleep and wake with a start at *am the next day. Now it is a race against time. Drawing 2 is complete around noon. With three hours left to make drawing 3, write two essays and get all the requirements to a FedEx shipping center I kick it into high gear. I get drawing 3 done, needless to say it is not my best work, by 2. The last hour was a frenzy of typing, lableling everything with my adress, and the worst part: folding. Now drawing 3 is not great but I am proud of drawing 2 and 1. Drawing one was a two sided drawing where the top is a picture (drawn from a photo i took) of me standing in a pond looking at my feet while the rain hits the pond surface. There is a fish tail plunging into the water, on the underside it is a drawing of a school of fish, with a lot of depth looking up at the bottom of the feet and the surface of the water. The second drawing was a creative drawing of a junked out bike in a pile of refuse with these strange garbage creatures crawling, floating, and growing in the pile. RISD forces the applicants to take their large drawings and fold them into quarters. FOLD THEM. it was a travesty and I may never recover. After the mad rust to the shipping center I went over to a friends house and painted trim until I could stand up anymore. Great weekend eh?

ok so this isn't really art related, but I am all shook up and were supposed to use this as an outlet right?
I had my Brown interview today, and it doesn't get any more nerve wraking than that. Some key moments were when the alumn told me that usually only one of all the kids he interviews actually gets in. The he said about twelve kids in the entire state of Oregon actually get accepted. Then at the end of the interview he asked me about my accomplishments. I told him I took first place in the George Fox shoe, got gold keys in Scholastic, and other artsy accomplishments. He respond by asking if I done anything else, saying that one kid interned at OHSU and another wrote published articles. He asked " Haven't you done anything like that?" I felt more then a little bit inadequate. No I have not published a book or been to the moon. I am a good student and a good artist. I am free spirit and a unique individual. But it was painfully apparent that I do not have the "Je ne sais quois" that Brown students should have. He was a nice enough guy but I feel I must kiss my Brown hopes goodbye and turn my dreaming elsewhere.

I went to George Foxon my way to visit my dad this weekend, and guess what? I won first place. And this wonderful little school is giving me 250 dollars. I was so surprised and happy. The art director showed me around the art facilities and showed me his art gallery, which was very edgy for a christian shcool. It was about the beauty of the female form and how its not something to be ashamed of even though modesty is important. I aslo visit alot of galleries in ashland and i got some ool ideas about how to pump up some of my past concentration piecies. I seriously can not wait to see if they work out!

sorry about the spelling errors :)