Art...My New Direction?

Well folks, only 9 more days and I'll be through with my first year of college. It's been a pretty good year, but maybe I can expound on that later. This week is "dead week" where there aren't suppose to be any tests (even though I have one Wednesday) or big papers or anything due. You just simply study for your exams, which start Saturday and go through to Wednesday. Then it's all summer fun from then on out. Well...no exactly. I was searching around today for places that were hiring, but no luck. I'm going to take a painting I class in Ybor at the community college. I decided that I need to take some kind of art class, just to see if that's something that I would like to concentrate on. Because really, this scattered academic thing isn't working for me. I feel at this point that I need to be focused on one subject and I'm realizing more and more (or being reminded) that I'm a visual person and maybe I should just focus on art. Yesterday, for example, I was having dinner at Olive Garden. I went to the restroom and when I walked into the bathroom I was thinking how the tiles were sorta bland, and if I would ever want something like that in my bathroom. Then I decided that I would if I had some deep red flowers in there to accent the copper color on the walls...Ahhhhh! Ok...it was at that point where I was like, ok...I think I need to give art a real try. My eyes have way more fun then my brain. So art has always been an interest of mine, and I was so into it during my high school days, but then it sorta wore off when I got to bible school. So everyone...I'm diving back in! We'll see how it goes. One problem is that I'm half way to getting my AA degree and it seems silly to stop now. So i'll probably get my degree, then move on from there to whatever I feel led to do. And hey, just for the fun of it, I'll tell you some of my art history. It all started when I was 13. I just wanted to see if I would like painting, so I got a picture of Van Gogh's starry night, and painted it. I spent hours and hours in my room painting this thing. After that I signed up for painting at school. Then one of my very few accomplishments in life happened. When I was a senior in high school, my art teacher suggested I enter into a high school art contest that was to take place at the Tampa Museum of Art. So I gave it a shot. The teacher and I built a huge canvas in class and I took it home and prayed that I would know what to paint on it. I tried a landscape, but I didn't like how it was turning out. So then I used a picture I took of some roses and painted that. It was submitted into the museum and then hung up for all to see. It was pretty exciting. I didn't win anything, but I was just happy to see my own work hanging up in the Tampa museum. The summer after high school I went to San Francisco to attend a high school art program where high school kids spent 6 weeks in the city going to the Academy Art College and taking 3 classes. I took painting, drawing, and photography. It was ALOT of fun. It was great to walk all around the city with my big ol' art board looking like a real artist. Those 6 weeks really helped my skills, especially in the drawing area. Well then it was off to bible school. I had an occasional burst of inspiration...like asking Elizabeth to be my model and painting her outside, having an art class with some of the girls by painting a bowl of fruit, and the drawings for the school yearbooks.
Well, I didn't really know where this post would go...but it all led to art. Here are just a few of my thoughts and I'm trusting God to lead me in the right direction.

Spring Banquet

Last Saturday was the big school event of the year, the Spring Banquet. I just wanted to post a few pics.


This is the man that everyone looks up to, I mean down to, coach and "dorm-daddy" Rene and next to him my banquet escort Zach.




Cheesecake!

I don't really have an explaination for this one.

One week ago....

So I've been wanting to write about this but haven't had the chance quite yet. Last Saturday night Mom, Dad, Robbie, Sharon, Katie and me went to this Christian coffee shop for "Open Mic Night" that they have the frist Saturday of every month. You already know where this is going! Well my dad and Robbie went to this last month and my dad got up and played a few of his songs. He did the same this time, played and sang 2 of his songs. Well I was already thinking about trying to sing something before we got there. A guy who works there started to walk around the room asking for people to sign up to sing or play something. He got to our table and I was still a little scared but I asked if I could see the songs they have available for karoke. I saw "I'll fly away" on there and thought it was the hymn because I know that some modern day christian groups sing it, but I didn't reckonize the group FFH. The guy came back a few minutes later and said that he would sign me up and if I didn't want to do it then I didn't have to (yeah right!). So after a hour or so it was my turn to sing. I told them my name and where I was from and that I went to college. They started to play the song and it definately wasn't the hymn. So, kinda embarrassed, I had to tell them to stop it and because it wasn't what I thought it would be. Well they asked me what I wanted to sing and they got out a hymn book. Then one guy got up on the stage to play the keyboard, one guy got on the drums, and a lady came up to be my back up singer! It was pretty exciting. So I "sang" and I told people to have mercy and to sing along..please. So people sang along, clapped their hands and shouted some nice things. What an adrenlin rush. After I was done they wanted me to sing something else but I couldn't decide on another hymn under so much pressure so I got off stage and headed towards my table. People cheered and shook my hand as I went back to my seat. There weren't alot of young people there, maybe 3 others my age and a few kids that Katie played with. It was alot of fun and I plan on going back next month, this time prepared with at least 2 songs.

Naomi

she has some kind of power that makes me sleepy all the time