End of Summer

I was never very good at keeping a journal or a sketchbook. I know I should keep a sketchbook, but that is just how some artists work...
Anyway, it has been over a year since I posted anything and it's high time I made some use out of this blog.

Classes begin at the University of Arizona on August 25th- my last semester before getting an official BFA and two minors in Japanese and Business Administration! Picking what graduate schools I want to go to is hard because I'm one of those people who tends to grow emotionally and physically attached to my location. I'm very attached to Tucson, but I will have to transplant myself sometime soon- I'm excited, but I'm also very scared. Some places I'm looking into are Northern Arizona State University, Arizona State University, and Laguna College of Art and Design. Laguna is expensive, but I'm hoping to find financial aid; I love the work that comes out of that school and they take a representational approach to their subjects. I'm a believer in learning all the representational rules before breaking and manipulating them.

In regards to my website, I have finally updated it after more than a year. I didn't mess with it for a while because I was having problems uploading my files to my server- but all is well and up to date now.

Right now I'm working on a series of paintings about the Japanese Shinto gateway called a "torii." I am fascinated with this structure because of its associations with birds (if you can't tell from my artwork, I love birds...) and its being a division between this world and the spiritual world. Shinto is a very interesting religion and if I were a more decisive individual, I would probably like to be a shintoist. Back to the series- I have ideas about depicting different toriis out of various materials and in an environment corresponding to its material and the style of the torii. I will include pictures and attempt to fully describe my ideas in a different post.

I have discovered the addictive world of Facebook, and I can now be found in its crowd of lethargic individuals. I was never a follower of very popular things, but I have found Facebook to be a good way to establish and strengthen relationships and display artwork- anything which will help me get my art out there works for me!