Saturday, November 1, 2014

Europe Bound

Well it is official I am heading to Europe to study abroad! So long Montanan plains and Hello Italian history! 

I won't be leaving until spring term but there is lots to do and plan until then! I hope to make many travels and have many adventures while I am over there. It will be really hard to leave my friends and family for so long, but everyone has been very encouraging and supportive of this new adventure! 

I would defiantly say the only reason I agreed to go to college was so I could study abroad. It has always been a dream of my best friend and I's. So as we both hopefully make our way to Europe this spring we will get to meet up and have awesome times!!! 


It will be weird to leave the Big Sky State for so long, but this will only make me apreciate it that much more when I come home.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Little Painting on the Prairie


This next painting is my self identity piece. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do. I came up with some sketches inspired by a couple of different artists though. The first is a Russian artist, Anna Berezovskaya. I loved the juxtaposition of the subject matter under the skirt verses the scene. My teacher introduced me to Stephanie Frostad. I have seen her work before, and it is super cool! I love her pieces and how they are very stylized. The shading and way she renders the figures and fabric is impeccable! She is also a Montanan artist! If you would like to see her work follow thilink to her website.


I had fun with this piece. I found trying to paint people is very difficult. (I still hate them hehe) We had a shortened critique this time so my comments are few. Every one commented that the piece has the same feeling as the last one. Once again I heard that it looks like social realism paintings from the 20's. It was also said that there is an interesting contrast between the movement of the landscape and the stillness of the woman. They loved how it seemed that the winds of the prairie were sweeping the city into the skirt. You can also check out my pinterest board of inspiration to see what my brain was thinking HERE!

Here is a sneak peak at the painting I am working on right now



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Man Vrs Nature... Painter Style!

The other day in my painting we began the class with a critique of our still life paintings. When it came time for my painting I timidly explained I had painted the scene out the window of the pretty mountains and trees as my focal point. 

Then my teacher asked the question. My teacher asked why I didn't paint people, cars, signs and all the lamp posts that should have been littering my painting. 

My reply was simple, "I don't like people"

When I had said this, I had meant it as, "I don't like to paint people or man made stuff!" not as I hate people.... I think...  I do love landscapes and the beauty of nature. Well with my quick and witty reply we all kind of chuckled because we realized that none of us appreciate man made objects interfering with our art!That led us to add symbolism and double meanings to my painting like crazy! It made me feel like a real artist (chuckle)

I would like to note that I didn't consciously intend to have these meanings in my painting, but I'm starting to think subconsciously maybe I did! I do feel, that man is mucking up the wild and natural beautiful scenes around us. I'm sure glad I live in Montana that is still home to the free rolling plains and wide open sky you can see touch horizon to horizon.

Back to school! My piece was also called "creepy but in a good way"... "It seems almost to perfect, in a weird sublime way. The trees are whimsical, the tree on the left received the comment of trying to push its way into the painting. The painting was also compared to a film noir. In film noir's the women would look so beautiful and extravagant, but the lighting would not dance upon their eyes which would be completely black. This comparison was compared to that of the windows on the building. Windows usually allow you to look into something but not these all you get to see is a black abyss. Also by taking the people and excess of human objects out it personified control and emptiness. But then it shows the beauty in a mockery.

Today I showed my painting to my foundations 3D teacher from last year. She picked up on the eeriness but the perfect beauty right away! She said the mountains has a looming presence over the calm empty grass that was painted simplistic in contrast to the complexity of the mountains. She also made the comment of the emptiness suggesting presence. It was great to get her comments on it! 

My painting teacher suggested I should think about starting a body of work. I think that sounds like a very good plan on how to express my frustration in a calm manner! that I guess I didn't even know I had until now... Gotta love art!


Monday, September 30, 2013

Is It Nap Time Yet?

Wow does time fly! Even when your sleep deprived! But isn't that the purpose of college to teach us that sleep is not a necessity of life? Or that blogging takes priority over studying for french..... oh well!

Today I learned though that art is important and that the world pretty much depends on us. We had a very special guest today at the college, Don Colley! He is an artist from Chicago. He was really inspirational and really cool. He showed us some techniques on how he sketches and shared some really great advice. He said, "sketching is thinking out loud" I had never really thought of that before, but it makes perfect sense! He is a really neat guy! check out some of his work, or his video by faber-castell!

 So I have not posted in ages which means I have been hard at work on projects for school! Here are some of the cooler projects! My first graphic project was a success! We were to create bit-mat monograms in adobe illustrator, which was a piece of cake! We had to mount our designs on mat board and they had to be presented perfectly.
Up next on the update is my painting projects! Our first project was to do a grid painting with a specific color scheme. I had analogous colors, red, yellow, and orange. We are supposed to make our own black in my painting class so thats how I ended up with the green color, the black I make has a ton of blue in it. We were supposed to pick a silhouette and use a 12X12 to cube-ify it. soooooo ya ta-da! Pretty wheat! We were to show depth by using the varying colors shades. Darker colors stand out more while lighter colors recede to the back. 

And finally may I present my first still life. We were supposed to render a still life in gray scale to study lighting and how far we can push the contrast between dark and light. I used oil paint and my own black so it has a blue-ish hue. I also used a pallet knife so the painting is full of texture! It was a really fun study! 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Back Into the Swing of School

My how time flies! To bad I'm not having a marvelous time! It's college time once again! Break out the overpriced books, late nights, and coffee comas! A friend and I the other day at lunch decided college is really those days you can't get back because it takes 20 years off your life from stress!

But this year is fun if i use my optimistic attitude! I'm taking a painting studio and intro graphics studio! I'm also taking French, art history, and a human and life development class(FCS)!

The FCS class is pretty awesome! The purpose of the class is to learn about humans development from conception till death, so we do the whole flour baby kind of project, but its a computer game instead! This is the only time we will ever be allowed to leave our kids alone for two weeks. The other part of the class we create our own avatars and raise them from 18 to a ripe ol age when we kill em off. Oh this is gonna be fun!

I love my painting and graphics class because duh they're art classes! It's great hanging out in the studio till 3 am again.... oh the memories.... coffee....

french is french! Im not failing yet so thats a plus!

Well it will be a busy year! I'm almost half way there!

Let the Everyday Adventures Begin!



Friday, August 2, 2013

Fancy Fruit!

I brushed up on my creative food skills this summer by making a fruit bouquet for a friend of mine from high school. She got married this summer and asked if I would make a fruit bouquet for the rehearsal dinner. Of course I would! I love playing with food!

She even provided the fruit so I only had to worry about finding the time and cookie cutters to make the  arrangement!

I looked up what fruit arrangements can cost, and it is insane! This is way cheeper than hundreds of dollars! Ya it may take some time, but thats what makes it special!
So here are some things you will need if you ever want to make a fruit arrangement! It was super easy and fun to do!

 For fruit I used watermelon, pineapple, canalope, some other mystery mellon, grapes, strawberries, and I used kale for a filler.
You will need wooden skewers to hold up the fruit, and obviously cookie cutters, knifes and a cutting board!

Start slicing up fruit about an inch or a half an inch. I made the pineapple probably to thick so you can probably get away with only a half an inch.

Once you have fruit cut and ready to assemble, slice off the top of the watermelon. First I figured out what side it was the most stable on though so it wouldn't go rolling around!

To make flowers, cut a flower shape out of pineapple and a circle from a melon, stick a toothpick into the pineapple and melon to attach, and finally a skewer into the pineapple. I found it to difficult to just put a skewer into both. You can cut out letters, and stick a row of grapes on skewers for simple creativeness! I also sliced a small piece of strawberry and cut it into a heart shape to go inside of a heart shaped pineapple to make it pop.

When You start to stick things into the watermelon, work back to front.  I started with the letters and then added kelp. I slowly added flowers and mellon pieces, always adding kelp. You may need to stick toothpicks into the kelp to help it stay down. Once you have a simple design stuff it with strawberries and grapes to create the full fruity effect!


Thursday, August 1, 2013

Soap and Splatter

I have done a horrible job of blogging over the summer! You would think I would have the time, but alas I don't! I continued to do Wacky Wednesdays in my community for the month of July, which was a blast! I am determined to play catch up and blog about the projects. So without further procrastination, this was one of the days we made soap sculptures and splatter art!

Telling parents that kids were going to make soap sculptures, I got some quizzical looks. There was no way I was going to trust little kids with knives! But I was going to trust them with a microwave! Turns out you can microwave Ivory soap, and it will grow and turn into this really cool blob of coral looking soap! I got the idea from Pintrest which came from a blog called, Our Best Bites, you can see their post here.

So I had the kids take turns helping me blow up the soap in the microwave, the look of awe on their faces was so rewarding! We would place the soap on parchment paper, and microwave it until the bar of soap was no longer a square. Afterwards I had them color their sculptures with food coloring. I mixed it with a bit of water to be thrifty. They used brushes and eye-droppers to 'paint' the soap. Kids and things that squirt water are dangerous, proceed with caution!

The really great thing about this project is that it has a good use! They could use their sculptures for a fun, and very bubbly colorful bath time! One of the moms told me her bathroom has never smelt better!


We also made some splatter art by putting some paint on a page and using packing squares, and straws to splat it all over the paper.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

And The Award Goes To....


So the other day my awesome Gammie(Grandma) accepted an award for being Docent of the year at the Yellowstone Art Museum (its the only art museum in Montana!!! all the others are centers or galleries) It was a very exciting and looooong day! My mom and I spent around eight hours driving that day. How we didn't kill each other I do not know.... Especially because my idea of driving is not exactly her idea of safe driving... hehe I am my fathers daughter!

So we made it to Billings alive! And on the way there I made art! Last year my Gammie and Mike-Mike(Grandpa) took me to France for a graduation gift! It was amazing, and has helped me a lot in my art classes!!! So I did a sketch of the Notre Dame with pen and pastel chalk. 


Here are some pictures of my amazing Gammie getting her award! She totally deserves it! She not only texts me all the time to let me know when they are getting french impressionist paintings into the museum, but has always supported my creativity and artsy fartsy side! When I was maybe around five or six she got posters for my brother and I. He got mighty ducks, and I got Degas's Ballerina in Red! I still cherish it! You can tell she really loves being a docent, she is always bragging about the museum and all the cool stuff she learns. She makes me want to be a docent!!! They could not have picked anyone better, although I am a tad bit biased... 



Monday, July 22, 2013

Wheat Packs!

As I was flying through Pintrest land the other day I stumbled upon how to make your own rice packs. Well I figured I could make some with wheat.
That is the nice thing about growing up on a wheat farm, is the fact you are always in abundance of wheat! But I wasn't getting the full on creative kick. I did not want to do any sewing. I absolutely detest my mothers sewing machine. That is why I mainly hand sew, I don't like that operated monster machine that much!
And so I pondered and prodded my mind for a way to make one of these suckers without sewing! Lightbulb! I remembered I had bought some wine bottle bag things from Michaels for $1! I don't drink but I loved the bags they were so pretty I had to get some! Boy, am I sure glad I did! They made this project a stitch! So here are the instructions to make a very simple wheat heating pad/pack!

All you need for supplies are...
6 cups of wheat or rice
Twist Tie
Wine bag
-And some ribbon or string if you need some! My bag from Michaels came with one!


So just add the wheat to the bag and uses the twist tie to secure it. Finally use the string to cover up the twist tie to make a very pretty and very quick and easy heat pack!

Just some extra tips, you may want to rinse your wheat so it smells better and just in case if you are allergic to the dust. It has also been suggested to put a cup of water in the microwave when you heat it up since the wheat can dry out and catch on fire... yikes! Also you may want to change your wheat out after awhile it can start to smell kinda musty. 

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Sparkly Shoes!

Whats better than shoes? SPARKLY SHOES!!! and even better...???? DIY sparkly shoes!
I had a pair of shoes that I loved they fit perfect except they were outdated and covered in camo. I wanted to hide the excess amount of camo on my shoes. I once again depended upon the help of mod podge to help sparklify my shoes!

Its an easy project just paint on some mod podge and sprinkle on some glitter and repeat!



And then you have some very pretty shoes!



Wacky Wednesdays!

Since being home i have been volunteering at our local arts center! When I was younger they used to have a program for young kids to do art activities. They had not done the program in years so when I asked about it, they asked me to run it!

I had not exactly been planning on running anything over my summer break, but I have enjoyed immensely! The kids are really great, they always work really hard and have been making some wonderful art!

Its been great being able to teach the kids about some art history and different types of art.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Sparkly Graduation Cap

In honor of the graduation season, I have a very special DIY project to share! When I graduated from High School I had to decorate my graduation cap! Our graduation colors were purple and teal... so I had no clue what i was going to do! I wanted to do something unique and different! I tried looking up fancy graduation caps on google but couldn't find any that met my expectations.
I had seen some projects where they used mod podge and glitter to sparkle-fy objects. LIGHT BULB! It worked out perfect I had an awesome grad cap that was unique and sparkly!

I taped off the corners first just in case I got glitter in places I didn't want it. Then I started adding layers of mod podge and glitter. I found it was easier and faster to add a layer of  glue and then sprinkle glitter over it, but make sure to do it in small layers otherwise it will become chunky. Another tip is make sure to let the bottom layers dry before adding one to the top, you will have to add many layers to coat the entire surface. First I covered the top in just silver, and as a final step I added bits of pink, purple, and blue. 
To top it all off I used an old belt buckle to add the final touch, I just hot glued it on.


Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Capstone Drawing: Progression of Emotions

Like other art classes, at the end of the semester means, chaos, stress, and capstone final projects. These projects are supposed to be examples of your creative capabilities (which hopefully you have some left by the end) and also skills acquired throughout the semester. For our drawing final we were instructed that we needed a set of three drawings We had the freedom to draw whatever anyway we wanted to. I decided to use charcoal, and draw figures. I hated figures before, but for some reason I had this ridiculous idea to have figures be my subject for my capstone! Maybe I drank to much coffee and felt super confident when I wrote my proposal paper, cause I have no idea what I was thinking! There is a reason why I never posted a picture of my self portrait. I hate drawing humans. dumb humans. Anyway I have included some parts from my capstone proposal so you can understand the inspiration from the pieces.

The capstone project I propose is that of a personal journey of strong emotions and growing up. It is a reflection on my personal emotional history. The first drawing is of a little girl’s hands clasped within a father’s hands. The next sketch shows a self-portrait of a bent head and outstretched hand. Last is the third sketch that shows a close up of eyes peaking out behind fingers and the gesture for quite. I also am inspired by the realism paintings of Honore Daumier. His paintings have a very sketchy characteristic to them. I was inspired by the boldness of his actions and how he was not afraid to stand and speak his mind through his art. He often exposed the un-glamorous side of life that many people in France at that time were trying to avoid. To me his paintings and prints have a lot of feeling and emotions packed into them. I wish to do the same in my progression of drawings.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Gift Wrapped Skeletons

For our final individual projects in my 3D class we were faced with building a structure using linear and planar materials to make a dynamic design that utilizes an interior structure
(skeleton) to create an exterior form (skin). The pieces had to have a transparent skin, windows for viewing the inside (which had to be a different design from the outside), and show our understanding of compression and expansion. 
We first built structures from straws to get a sense of what forms we hoped to render. From there we moved on to use balsa wood to build our sculptures. In the beginning I felt this project was going to be easy, and maybe even fun. I was wrong. I hate sculpture. Hate is a strong word. I hate sculpture. It may have to do with the fact I hate math. A lot. There is a reason I am an art student. I can't spell and I can't do math. To give you some perspective on how awful I truly am at math, it took me three hours to build a Hexagon! THREE HOURS! That's why I hate sculpture. And so I survived countless hours piecing this structure together which questioned my patience and what I had ever done to deserve such unfair treatment. I sure did have some bad karma with this one! but avail, like a gazillion hours later I finally finished the sculpture!!!

Naked sculpture


Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Apple of a Pie

   It has been forever since I blogged, but the end of my first year of college is only two weeks away! Instead of writing a speech I decided I would waste my time away on my blog. hmmmm lets see what procrastination has in store for me!

   And speaking of procrastination that brings me back to the blog, and the fact that the project I'm showing is actually all the way back from Easter time.... whoopsy! And so my Easter *cough *cough from not to long ago..... was a lot of fun! We got a couple of close friends together to celebrate with a dinner. My friend from Chile hosted our little dinner party, and she made an amazing dish from her home country, Chile, which was AMAZING! It was made of salmon and looked like a strawberry smoothie BUT tasted nothing like it! It was super yummy!  she cooked raw salmon with the acid from lemon and limes and marinated it with peppers and onions. We also had a Korean stew, and rice. I also made mashed potatoes. Our food as well as the guests were from all over the world! Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, Turkey, 1/2  Japan (hehe), and USA were all present. I also made a staple American dessert!  Apple pie!

So I figured I would show how to make some good ol' fashioned American apple pie for anybody that doesn't know!  So here is how to make and an apple pie from scratch with real apples!

Basic tools needed for the job


Ingredients you will need, you can use any apples you want though!


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

College Home Cookin'

 Boy am  I smart or What! I feel as if I have leaped over culinary perceptions of college cooking! I have discovered a super yummy way to make something like spaghetti, that tastes like spaghetti O's, within the realm of my very own dorm room. [cue dramatic music]

It is a big deal.

For all you people to fancy or who have the ability to actually buy real groceries let me introduce you to ramen a very cheep meal, and beside it is western family tomato soup another cheep contender in today's experiment. 


Saturday, March 23, 2013

Mac Bling

Today I finally had the time to get a DIY project done! Being an art student and all especially as a graphic design major I wanted to add some personality to my computer. Everybody just puts stickers on theirs but that not so original after a while, and so I decided to make mine sparkly! Last year I mode-podged my graduation cap to be sparkly so I used the same methods to sparkle-ify my computer!

First step is to gather your supplies to customize your computer! You will need mod podge, glitter, a paint brush, and I would recommend using a case to put the litter on instead of directly onto your computer. Hard shell cases can be found on Amazon for cheep.  

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

The Never Ending Drawing

 10 hours is a long time. Especially if you spend 10 hours on one drawing!

That was our latest assignment in our drawing class was to spend at least 10 hours on our still life. That's 10 hours dealing with the joys of charcoal (I hope you could tell I was being sarcastic), 10 hours of squinting at a still life, 10 hours of frustration, 10 hours of stress, 10 hours of pure anger (people kept changing our still life, they better hope we never find who they were).

But 10 hours is really not that much to spend on a drawing that you want to do really well on, and we jam out to music in studio so 10 hours isn't probably as bad as it first seems!

So to begin our still life's we had to choose a spot, I gravitated towards the little piccolo. I have a soft spot for the instrument since I used to play it in high school!

Some of my sketches

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Little Black Blobs

How busy can you get? SUPER DUPER busy that's how much!
And so to get back into the swing of blogging I present our new 3D project!

We had to construct modules to create one big form. The project was called, design between the folds.

we had to create a 3D form constructed from many multiples of a singular modular design or “unit”. The unit had to be created from paper and include some type of “fold” in its construction. The final form had to have an exterior surface texture that was different from its interior texture. 

And so we played with lots of concepts and lots of paper. We saved so many trees this past month.... not. Art school uses paper like smokers use cigarettes! 

After murdering countless innocent trees our projects were finally done! 



Thursday, January 31, 2013

2D transformed into 3D

Today finally was the day that we critiqued our project we have been working on for weeks in 3D. The project took forever (ok so like three weeks) but it turned out really great! Our piece was based upon geometric planes, we were supposed to create a 3-dimensional design based upon a map marked out by points.

Our first step was to pick a location that had some meaning to us, lots of people picked the places they grew up, or went to school. I choose France!!!! I miss it a lot and had an amazing time there. The specific location I chose was the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery. I have relatives who manage the cemetery there. The country side was so beautiful and moving and to hear stories from my relatives about the cemetery and people who come to visit, and then to even find Montana guys buried there really "changed" me I think. Oh and they have wheat fields in France that was pretty epic too! All the farm land, and the tiny little towns all over really reminded me of home!

Back in school I first printed out my map from google.



And Then I proceeded to cut out a shape by plotting points that had significance to my adventure! Some points were, a spot I almost got ate by a deer on a walk, another was the old farm I walked to, a field I took pictures of, a Montana guys grave, my relatives house, and ect.