a candle's fickle flame

from jamie's recent "blog or die" remarks, i've realized i'm already not keeping up with this as much as I intended too.. (almost every day was the goal)

well, at the risk of being murdered by an irish/korean air force man to be.. here i am!

hello ^_^

i spent today chillin out, maxin, relaxin all cool.  my brother and i shot some hoops and played volleyball in the backyard.  then i spent some time being depressed about how i'm too big to comfortably fit onto our swing set anymore as i awkwardly tried to propel myself on it.  even more upsetting was looking at the spot near the volleyball net where the trampoline used to be.  if my parents are really that worried about the safety issue, whyyyyyyyyyyy did they buy it in the first place?  i often contemplate dragging it out of the garage and setting it up, but knowing i'll have to dismantle it as soon as my parents see it is discouraging enough for my lazy self.

later on, my brother left to go play basketball with his hooligans.  so i had the house to myself, wheee!  i popped a cd in the seldom used stereo and let my music fill the house sans worries as i got out my painting stuff.  yay for getting lost in mellow tunes and swirling colors.  i worked on my abstract death cab for cutie tribute.. its mad strange.

it doesn't feel right, but i don't know what's missing.  the composition is also giving off awkward vibes.  i never do abstract, this is tough for me.  all the solid color also makes me nervous.  the only other abstract i've ever done was a keith herring inspired piece about two years ago.

that one's pretty straightforward.  you have to be a death cab fan to understand the one i'm working on now.  still life, landscape, reproduction - those styles have always been easier for me.  my favorite work so far this year has been my reproduction of van gogh's "cypresses."

mine came out a little brighter than his and my brushstrokes are more mellow.  his strokes were smaller with more intensity.  i love the way he painted.  i think in order to become a better painter, i need to become a better drawer - more natural and confident.  this past year, i only really did one drawing.. and it was with a no. 2 pencil on printer paper >.< 

its bad quality because its a camera phone picture.  after finishing up helping kids with their homework at icahn house, we were free to do pretty much whatever with them afterwards.  one day, one of the women there asked me to sketch a picture of her son, so that's the story behind that.

next semester, i'm taking two classes for my studio art minor.  i'm psyched to feel sort of like an art student!