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... 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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