Watercolors

This semester I have really enjoyed painting.  The SLC Comic con has given me a bit of motivation as well since I will be selling there. I've been playing around with some very simple and gestural shapes lately. 

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Waves

Here is some stuff I did last semester.  I tend to go on tangents for awhile and then I switch.  Last semester I was inspired from heather brown, an artist I saw in Hawaii.  Her work looked like stain glass.  I started trying her style and it took in my own off direction from there.  Everything came from my own reference photos.  These are in order of when I painted them.  I started from inspiration from Heather and finished with a more Gauguin like style.

SCED 4200 blog 2: Affective Dimensions of Writing

No, I don't really think of myself as a writer, I never have.  I always had a hard time writing papers as a kid because I have a hard time organizing it.  I had a lot to say, just a loss of the right words and where to put them.  Pictures make sense to me.  I much prefer to express myself through a painting or a photograph than writing.  I love to paint because I can just pick up a brush and do it- no instructions, no limitations, no writing.  My hand coordinates with what my brain wants much more fluently than with writing.

I did do a little writing for fun as a child.  I wrote my own stories.  Most of them were short- if they were long I never finished them.  I also wrote faithfully in my journal for a little while.  It's the only time in my life that I've done that.  Now the format has changed, everything is digital.  I text, instagram, facebook, blog, and write for school.  Free writes are rare now-a-days unless they are correlated to school.

Sometimes I did enjoy writing in school, when there wasn't a harsh structure where I could relax and forget about grammar-things like reflections.  I like the reflections because when i have to write about something long enough, I am always surprised with the thoughts I develop.  Thoughts I don't think would have come to surface otherwise.  As mentioned in class today, writing does help us to collect our thoughts.  I also remember a particular essay that I enjoyed writing.  This being because I got to choose the artist I researched, Picasso.  Learning about this artist was very intriguing and enlightening.

Having had these experiences, I think as a teacher I will have my students write, but I won't put a lot of pressure on them to do it a certain way or in a certain format- those things were always stressful to me.  The most important thing I am looking for is brain stimulation.  I want them to write meaningful things verses the generic bs most students do just to get by.  I also know that most people like options and will try to provide options for my students.

Lazy Painting Days

28' X 22"
Dec 2013

I've had a lot more time to paint since I finished my semester at Utah State and am on Christmas break.   It's been nice to have time to read a lot of art books and just paint without too many deadlines or external pressures.  The bottom image is the most current.  Others suggested I try a horizon line as the waves were very busy.  I was inspired by Gauguin for the style and skin tones of the girl and am very pleased with the unique skin tones I was able to accomplish.  I've been painting from my references I took while in Hawaii.  This girl in particular was in the canoe show at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Gauguin

The Famous Turtle

22"x 15"
2013
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2011
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Snow College
Works In Progress
Exhibition

Out of all the things I've painted, I've probably had the most recognition and appraisal from the turtle you see below (created in 2011).  I submitted it to the Snow College Art Show, not thinking it would get in.  It was a quick study of little effort.  To my surprise it got into the show and everyone loved it.  I was sold during the exhibition.  A friend always wished she could have purchased it so for Christmas her husband commissioned me to recreate it.  I had a lot of fun painting the new turtle, a subject I have always loved.