kel-logg

are Indian kids the cutest kids ever?

2010-04-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

maybe it's just because I have the pleasure of knowing the beautiful kids :-)

a few photos from India...

2010-04-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

after a little photoshopping :-)

a few thoughts from India...

2010-03-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

yep. I'm tired. I've always been someone who need a good deal of sleep. Go ahead. Ask my mom. As a kid, I didn't care if my friends were over, if I was sleepy, I would go to sleep. :-) Since I'm still adjusting here, I'm not writing a whole lot yet. Here some thoughts...

We have air conditioning where we are staying. It's nice. Cause it is hot outside. I've had worst but the AC is a hugh blessing :-)

Indian drivers are incredible. I don't know how anyone can drive so offensively and yet so defensively at the same time. It always makes me a little nervous but they actually really good drivers. It's just different.

My sinuses cleared up just in time for the lovely scents of Mumbai. I'm glad to be able to breath - mostly.

Tonight we're going to visit the orphanage that I worked with 4 years ago on my first trip to India. I'm looking forward to seeing the kids again. I'm not sure if any of them will remember me because they have lots of different teams that come through and work with them. But i remember them!

phun with photoshop...

2010-03-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

places i've been...

missing the northeast...

2010-03-10T19:35:00.000-08:00

I was able to talk to a friend of mine from New Haven, CT. It was really nice to hear her voice. They were having a game night. And I'm missing it. I'm missing New Haven. I'm missing my NH friends. These are 2 of my favorite places to walk around and take pictures in New Haven. I used a little photoshop, obviously :-)

thank you, very much...

2010-02-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

I've decided (and been encouraged by someone) to be very diligent in writing thank you notes to my friends who support me financially. Not just an email, but an actual card. Which, I really like the idea. I hope I'm successful :-) My favorite part is designing them...

old 'stamping' ground...

2010-02-03T16:23:00.000-08:00

Me and my sister, Courtney, were determined to go through our stuff that was in the family storage shed. It was a bit of a task but with the help of our mom, we cleaned out quite a bit of it. We found our old baby books, lots of old pictures, children's books, and my old stamp collection. When I had moved, I didn't know what to do with it so I told my mom to toss it. But she kept it, and I'm glad she did. I've started using them in some art projects. Don't worry - these are worth very much. May be about 30 cents each! :-)

I will be selling these on Etsy.com

The money will go toward my trip to India!

India 2010!

2010-01-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! This may have been a long time coming but... I'm going to India again! I had the pleasure of going to INDIA for the first time with a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) team in January 2006. We stayed and worked with an orphanage in the city of Pune for a month. During that month, we helped get the kids ready for school, shared meals, helped with homework, taught Bible lessons, made crafts, played games, and sang songs. We did this at least 5 days a week. With that much time with the kids it was very hard to leave them. It was about a 4 hour drive from the orphanage to the airport and most of cried, at least, half way there. A few of the girls from the team were already trying to figure out when they could come back. I'd just say that if God wanted me to come back, I would.

Fast-forward 4 years later and I think GOD IS CALLING ME BACK. This past December, a friend of mine invited me to go with her team in January and, to my surprise, my heart was like "YES! I want to go!" Yes, I wanted to go but I was unable. About a week before that call, I had met with Patty Bauman (who works with YWAM and Streams of Mercy) to chat about what I was doing next. Since I didn't know what I was doing next, Patty shared, among many things, some of their thoughts and plans for India. She started me thinking so we met again, and again, and pretty soon, we were planning a trip to India.

This is kind of a SCOUTING TRIP to visit several different ministries in the Pune area. I've known, for a while, that I want to use art and maybe work with kids and/or young people. There is a rescue and restore house for former prostitutes that we are looking to teach them how to make jewelry. I would love to use the knowledge that I have for creating jewelry to help get them started. We will also be doing an art project with a children's home for kids who have been taken in from the streets.

Patty with a group that we will work

Part of MY HEART for wanting to go is to bring art and creativity to children. On my first trip to India we were able to bring crafts for the children at the orphanage and the street kids. It was so wonderful seeing their faces light up with the simplest of crafts. I was very blessed to come from a creativity-encouraged home with the funds to provide the supplies. I want to bring this opportunity to the children of India.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: I need $2200 for airfare, boarding, and food. I am going with a small team and we will be there for about 9 days. I would also ask for prayer. I feel like this trip to going to help me determine my next step. I see that God is leading me to India and I want to know exactly what He had planned for me there and for this next season.

CONTACT: If you are interested in supporting me financially or have more questions on the trip, please leave a comment or email me: craftykellyjo@yahoo.com

Me and David on my first trip 4 years old

bringing sexy back...

2010-01-23T16:04:00.000-08:00

i love old movies. For many different reasons. The stories, the actors, the style, the cars, the songs and the clothes. Yes, the clothes! They are gorgeous, and they really knew how to accessorize! I love the hats!

I'm thinking about bringing about this trend back...

mild obsession monday: it's coming! it's coming!

2010-01-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

LOST

Oh yes. It's coming. The final season of Lost. And 'mild' obsession may be a little too, well, mild of a description of my feelings for this show. (insert sheepish grin here)

I've called my friends during the commercial breaks to discussed what just happened. I've read websites (yes, that's plural) that theorize on what Lost is all about. I've gone to Lost parties - dressed as characters from the show. (another sheepish grin)

There's been 3 new cast photo promos just released:

promo1

promo2

promo3

Entertainment Weekly Online has a contributor named Doc Jensen. He really loves his Lost and he really loves theorizing about the show. If you have a mild obsession too, you should read some of his ideas here.

AHHHHH!

2010-01-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, that's a little exaggerated. My sister-in-law got this book of vintage labels that included a CD of all the images. You see, all of the labels are public domain so she let me upload the ones i wanted. They are beautiful! So i uploaded a few in hopes of doing something with them. But i don't know what to do! I'm a little overwhelmed with all of the gorgeous labels! I hope to figure something out soon. In the meantime, here's a few lovely labels to enjoy...

art deco - a personal fav...

2010-01-16T08:34:00.000-08:00

Art Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film. At the time, this style was seen as elegant, glamorous, functional, and modern.

Its popularity peaked in Europe during the Roaring Twenties and continued strongly in the United States through the 1930s. Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions, Art Deco was purely decorative.

Art Deco experienced a decline in popularity during the late 30s and early 40s, and soon fell out of public favor. It experienced a resurgence with the popularization of graphic design in the 1980s.

The structure of Art Deco is based on mathematical geometric shapes. It was widely considered to be an eclectic form of elegant and stylish modernism, being influenced by a variety of sources. The ability to travel and excavations during this time influenced artists and designers, integrating several elements from countries not their own. Among them were the so-called "primitive" arts of Africa, as well as historical styles such as Greco-Roman Classicism, and the art of Babylon, Assyria, Ancient Egypt, and Aztec Mexico. Much of this could be attributed to the popular interest in archeology in the 1920s. Art Deco also drew on Machine Age and streamline technologies such as modern aviation, electric lighting, the radio, the ocean liner and the skyscraper for inspiration.

Art Deco was a luxurious style, and its lavishness is attributed to reaction to the forced frugality imposed by World War I. Its rich, festive character fitted it for "modern" contexts, including the Golden Gate Bridge, interiors of cinema theaters and ocean liners. The style is said to have reflected the tensions in the cultural politics of its day, with eclecticism having been one of its defining features. In the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the distinctive style of Art Deco was shaped by 'all the nervous energy stored up and expended in the War'.

hold the phone...

2010-01-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

Wait. what's going on?

Well, i'm changing the look of my blog. But i don't know exactly what i want. So, within the next few days it may change several times :-) you may leave your comments about it, if you like...

mild obsession monday...

2010-01-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Myrna Loy.

I love her.

Who is she, you ask? She's an actress from the 20's, 30's and 40's. She's great! Well, she's great in everything that i've seen her in. Unfortunately, that's not a lot, but i'm trying to modify that. I own two of The Thin Man series that she appeared in with William Powell and today at the library, i checked out Libeled Lady (also with Powell and Jean Harlow!).

Why do i love her? She's hilarious in The Thin Man movies! Her husband in the film refers to her as a lanky brunette with a wicked jaw - A perfect description. She's smart, witty, sophisticated, and dying for an adventure :-) I've only seen three other movies of hers: Wife Vs. Secretary, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. She is great in every one!

I can't wait to watch Libeled Lady!!

Here's some trivia about Myrrna:

In 1936 Myrna was named Queen of the Movies and Clark Gable King in a national poll, winning a crown of tin and purple velvet. in her autobiography, she says that she did not get on with Gable in her earlier films with him. However, in her later films he developed a respect for Loy and they became good friends.

Her profile was the most requested in the 1930s by women to their plastic surgeons.

Was supposedly the favorite star of famed outlaw John Dillinger. He came out of hiding to see Manhattan Melodrama (1934), in which she starred, and was gunned down by police upon leaving the theater.

Turned down the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934). Claudette Colbert was given the part and went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. - one of my favorite movies ever!!

"Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming."

on my mind...

2010-01-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

yep.

new medium?

2010-01-03T22:05:00.000-08:00

So, i've got this big bunch of grey linen.

Earlier this year i decided that i wanted to paint on something different, for a change. I went to a local (new haven) vintage shop and looked at scrap fabric. I look through several different scraps including this gorgeous grey linen - although, it really wasn't a "scrap", it was more like a bundle. But since it was cheap and i was looking for some grey material, i bought it. I've used it a couple of times with acrylic paint...

and then, just mere days ago, I wondered what it would look like if i tried my watercolors on this beautiful grey linen. I loved it!! And since i really enjoy my 'lines', i used a some Sharpie :-) These are my first two, of many, maybe...

why am i sad?

2009-12-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

I heard on the news today that the famous Tavern of the Green in NYC is closing. It made me sad. Then i wondered, why am i sad? I've been to NY several times, and not once did i even try to find the Tavern, let alone try to dine there. (i'm sure it's out of my price range) So why do i care? Hmmmm...

If it's possible to miss your own birth date, i think i missed mine by about 50 years. Well, i love anything vintage, old, or retro and when i hear about an old landmark/kitschy tourist trap/historical building it make me sad because i can't experience it now. When i find vintage clothing at goodwill - i snatch it up (if it fits!). I mostly listen to recording artists that are dead - that sounds morbid. And i think movies are better in black & white. But when a "landmark" like the Tavern is closing, i can't do anything about it. But instead of staying in that "sad place", i looked up the history of the Tavern of the Green and found out that it has actually closed several times! But after some renovation, it always opens up to new life. So maybe one day i'll get my date at the Tavern :-)

Here's some of the history with pictures...

Built in 1870, the rural Victorian Gothic structure now known as Tavern on the Green was designed by Jacob Wrey Mould as a sheepfold. It housed 200 South Down sheep, which grazed across the street in Central Park's Sheep Meadow.

It served admirably in that capacity until 1934, when legendary Parks Commissioner Robert Moses decided the building had a higher calling - that of a restaurant. Moses banished the sheep to Brooklyn's Prospect Park and assigned their shepherd to the lion house in the Central Park Zoo.

The first incarnation of Tavern on the Green -- the restaurant -- was launched on October 20, 1934. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia opened the restaurant with a brass key and, in the company of a proud Moses, took a tour of the facility. After chatting with the chef and sampling a breakfast sausage, Fiorello and Moses pronounced their satisfaction with Central Park's newest attraction.

Embraced by New Yorkers as a gathering place and Tavern on the Green quickly became an integral part of the city's summer social life. From the late 1930s until 1943, it was the headquarters of the Civilian Patrol Corps, until it was taken over and renovated by the Claremont Inn to become a year-round restaurant. By the 1950s, Tavern on the Green was showing some wear and tear and the brilliant designer Raymond Loewy was engaged to renovate the building, yet again.

A succession of management companies operated the restaurant until 1962 when Restaurant Associates took it over. By the early '70s, Tavern on the Green was a restaurant no longer in sync with the times, and Restaurant Associates shuttered it in 1974.

Rather than signaling the end of an era, however, its closing was the beginning of an exciting new one for the tavern. Warner LeRoy acquired the lease and embarked upon a spectacular $10 million renovation. With LeRoy's addition of the glass enclosed Crystal and Terrace Rooms, his lavish use of brass, stained glass, etched mirrors, original paintings, antique prints and, above all, chandeliers, Tavern was reincarnated. It became a glittering palace, Central Park's most spectacular structure.

The reincarnated Tavern on the Green took New York by storm from the moment it re-opened on August 31, 1976. It dazzled the city with its decorative whimsy, its eclectic menu and its playfulness. Tavern, once so "out" that it had to close, was now very "in" indeed. Celebrities flocked to the restaurant to see and be seen.

Always a fantastic work in progress, Tavern on the Green underwent yet another renovation in 1988 to expand its popular Tavern Store, relocate the bar, and create the lovely Park Room and Garden.

Subsequently, the beautiful Crystal Garden overlooking the Sheep Meadow was remodeled to accommodate dancing during the summer months. And, in 1993, a celebrated "Menagerie of Topiaries", created by the Hollywood wizards who fashioned the fantastic greenery for the hit film 'Edward Scissorhands', took up residence in Tavern's gardens.

Since LeRoy's death in 2001, Tavern on the Green has continued to thrive under the direction of his daughter Jennifer LeRoy. She has also commissioned new hand-painted murals and installed additional antique treasures to dazzle the eye of the next generation of Tavern diners.

attention class!

2009-12-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

This is part of my pop art report for the YWAM School of Design...

Pop Art is among the most important visual arts movements of the twentieth century. The Pop artists turned to popular culture and advertising for sources to create representational works that defied the modernist view of avant-garde and kitsch. Pop Art brought ART back to the material realities of everyday life in which ordinary people derived most of their visual pleasure from television, magazines, or comics. With the use of these mundane subject, Pop Art seemed to some observers to be frivolous and reactionary. However, it actually represents a turning point in the history of twentieth-century art.

The most famous artist from the Pop Art movement is Andy Warhol, who became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure.

It was during the 1960s that Warhol began to make paintings of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor as well as paintings of iconic American products such as Campbell's Soup Cans and Coca-Cola bottles. Warhol had this to say about Coca Cola: "What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."

Throughout the decade it became more clear that there had been a profound change in the culture of the art world, and that Warhol was at the center of that shift. A pivotal event was the 1964 exhibit The American Supermarket. The exhibit was one of the first mass events that directly confronted the general public with both pop art and the perennial question of what art is.

In Pop Art, the epic was replaced with the everyday and the mass-produced was awarded the same significance as the unique; the gap between "high art" and "low art" was eroding away. It was easy to understand, easy to recognize because it was iconic and accessible to the mass public. The media’s role was summarized with Warhol's famous quotation: "In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes". Television, internet, magazines and Hollywood are producing new images everyday. They are only enlarging the popular culture. Everything is just an image, and it’s ready to be consumed.

top 10?

2009-12-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

Well, 'top' 10 may not be quite accurate. It's the end of the year and every t.v., blog, website, magazine, etc. starts posting their "top 10 whatever" of the year - you name it. There's best movie lists, top scandals, favorite trends, greatest youtube videos, funniest pets, great moments in history, and so on and so forth. So, i decided to have my own list. Is it a top 10? no. But it's a picture from each month of '09 with a memory to go with :-)

JANUARY - I was in Texas for most of Jan and for Dad's birthday the family went mini-golfing (sans Ryan) The picture is a little dark but it's my favorite from that night!

FEBRUARY - I was back in Connecticut and I was a teacher's assistant for a week long art class. These were the two students who gave me the most trouble but both wrote me thank you notes and hugged me at the last class :-)

MARCH - The start of many, many cupcakes. Why? Because I like decorating (and eating) cupcakes.

APRIL - Easter. As soon as Cora discovered that the eggs had candy, we couldn't stop her.

MAY - Cora-bora :-)

JUNE - Me and Nourtney singing together. First time ever.

JULY - In Germany with the lovely Anne-Kerstin :-)

AUGUST - Two words: Chocolate. Fondue.

Two more words: In. Switzerland!

SEPTEMBER - My wonderful and crazy room-mates, Celine (right) and Rocio

NOVEMBER - Don't adjust your screen. I don't seem to have any pictures from October so I'm showing 2 from Nov. This is one from my visit to Kansas City to surprise Nourtney on her birthday. They are watching a video of the family (in Wylie) singing Happy Birthday.

This one is from the Grimm Family Thanksgiving. That's my grandmother (Granny) giving my great-grandmother (her mom), Mama a hug. Mama is 99 years old! She doesn't usually make it to the family events because it wears her out, but she was a trooper that day :-)

DECEMBER - well, I'm waiting for Christmas pictures :-)

flashback...

2009-11-24T18:06:00.000-08:00

i can guarantee that you've seen some of his work -

Drew Struzan (born March 1947) is an American artist. Struzan has painted album covers, advertising, collectibles, and book covers, but he is best known for his extensive movie poster work.

Struzan is one of the industry's most recognized talents, having provided artwork for over 150 movie posters, including many of the best-known films of all time. A particular favorite artist of film directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg...

A Portland, Oregon native, Struzan was born a child prodigy with the rare distinction of skill in art. In 1965, at age 18, he enrolled at the Art Center College of Design. "The first thing the counselor asked me was 'what do you want to major in,' so I asked what the choices were." He was informed that he had two choices: fine art or illustration. The counselor went on to describe the two careers, telling Struzan that as a fine artist he could paint what he wanted, but as an illustrator he could paint for money. It didn't take him too long to choose his course of study. "I'll be an illustrator," he announced. "I need to eat."

After graduating from college, Struzan found a job as a staff artist for a design studio. There he began designing album covers. Over the next 5 years, he would create album cover artwork for a long line of musical artists, including Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Beach Boys, Bee Gees, Roy Orbison, Black Sabbath, Glenn Miller, Iron Butterfly, Bach, Earth, Wind and Fire, and Liberace.

Along with a friend, Struzan started a small company, Pencil Pushers. It was during this time that he honed his distinctive one-sheet style and first became proficient in the use of the airbrush, which would later define him as a master of the tool. In 1977, fellow artist Charles White III, had been hired by Lucas to create a poster design for the 1978 re-release of Star Wars. White, uncomfortable with portraiture, asked Struzan for his help on the project. As such, Struzan painted the human characters in oil paints and White focused on the ships, Darth Vader, C-3PO and all the mechanical details of the poster art. The poster went on to become a fan favorite as well as the director's, as the original art hangs in Lucas' Northern California home.

Throughout the '70s and '80s Struzan produced a constant stream of work for such diverse films as Blade Runner, The Cannonball Run, the Police Academy series, Coming To America, First Blood, Risky Business, An American Tail and The Goonies, among many, many others. But his most recognizable works would be The Back to the Future series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Indiana Jones series, The Star Wars series.

Although equally talented in other media, Struzan's primary work medium is airbrushed acrylics on board with finishing details in colored pencil. Working from reference photographs and live models, Struzan has been known, at times, to include depictions of himself, family members and friends in his work. He is known for working very quickly; typically it takes him two days to finish a painting.

"A poster becomes that one image that represents the entire film," Struzan says. "If it is accurate and truthful and has good spirit, it resides with you forever."

Here are some favorites from my childhood :-)

Drew's website

a new thing: Stuart Davis

2009-11-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

So i'm trying this new thing: at least once a week, I want to blog about an artist or art movement. I've been getting art book from the library and reading all kinds of different websites and blogs, so i've decided to share with you. Let's start with Stuart Davis, a personal fav...

Stuart Davis (December 7, 1892 - June 24, 1964), was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his Jazz influenced, proto-pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s.

He grew up in an artistic environment, for his father was art director of a Philadelphia newspaper and his mother was a sculptor. Between 1910-13, Stuart made covers and drawings for the social realist periodical The Masses. It was during an exhibition in 1913, which also included works by Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, that Stuart became a committed "modern" artist. After a visit to Paris in 1928-29 he introduced a new note into US Cubism. Using natural forms, particularly forms suggesting the characteristic environment of American life, he rearranged them into flat poster-like patterns with precise outlines and sharply contrasting colors.

He later went over to pure abstract patterns, into which he often introduced lettering, suggestions of advertisements, posters, etc. The zest and dynamism of such works reflect his interest in jazz. Davis is generally considered to be the outstanding American artist to work in a Cubist idiom. He made witty and original use of it and created a distinctive American style, for however abstract his works became he always claimed that every image he used had its source in observed reality: `I paint what I see in America, in other words I paint the American Scene.'

what happened?

2009-11-20T14:49:00.001-08:00

Yeah, that's right. I'm a jerk. I said that i wanted to blog more, then i go for weeks without posting. Well, i'm not making excuses but i want you to know what happened. Ok, for about a week, i was just lazy. I didn't post because i didn't want to. Then i woke up one morning and thought, I'm gonna blog today. Wouldn't you know, that would be the day we lost the internet at our house. We were switching over to a new provider or something and we had to wait for our new router (or something) to come in the mail. So that was a few days. Then as soon as we got our internet up and running, I took a trip to Kansas City with my friend, Rita, to visit my sister, Courtney (a.k.a. Nourtney). And I just got back yesterday. So here's a short little blog post, let's call it a "bloglet"...

my told my sister-in-law, Sarah, that I would paint her anything for her birthday - her choice :-) she wanted something to go in their kitchen and she found a vintage advert for orange juice. here's the finished product...

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? the original poster

because you asked...

2009-10-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

my friend Hana, requested to see some of my projects from the School of Design that i attended in Switzerland. This is my Design Book (i posted a few pictures in an earlier post). Each week we had to do 4 pages in our books: the first page was an illustration of the week's subject, the next 2 pages were for the 5 main points during the week, and the last page was for a nature or characteristic of God...

Week 1 - Theology of Design

Week 2 - Design Principles

yes, that's CRAP. it stands for: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity

Week 3 - Typography

Week 4 - Iconography

where's the 5 main points? under the icons!

Week 5 - Photography

yes, that's my foot holding the pop-up open...

Week 6 - Packaging

Week 7 - Web Design

the paper opened up and had song lyrics on it...

Week 8 - Web Project

Week 9 - Video

the main points are tucked in the "windows"...

Week 10 - Video Project Week

yep, the main points are behind the shutters...

the end :-)

oh baby!

2009-10-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've had the privilege of creating paintings for some of my friends nurseries. Some of them have been gifts, but some were commissioned (and bought) by the baby's mom :-) I like being able to give my paintings away as gifts, but it's an honor to be requested to paint - and a little scary! I've had 2 friends now, that have requested a picture for their nurseries and just gave me the colors and told me that they trusted me. I'm always a little nervous at first but once I get an idea, I start to get excited! Plus there's something fun about painting for kids/babies. One of my biggest influences is Mary Blair, and a lot of her art was for children's books, cartoons (Disney), and advertising for products for kids. Always very whimsical and fun. As I'm trying to figure out exactly what I'm to do with this gift of painting, I'm enjoying being able to use it to brighten up some baby rooms - maybe that's it :-) Feel free to contact me if you know of some more nurseries! Anyhoo, here's Evy Rankin's painting...

back to school?

2009-10-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

My mom enlisted me to help my sister, Shelby, with her english project - which i don't mind because i got to work with clay. Shel is making a board game based on the book, Frankenstein. She needed players pieces for the game so i made 4 of the main characters out of clay...

before...

after...

one is Henry, the girl is Elizabeth, one is Victor's father, and the crazy-haired one on the end is Victor Frankenstein - she wanted him to have Doc Brown hair :-)

since i have some time on my hands...

2009-10-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

I've been back from Switzerland for a little over 2 weeks now - wow, it seems longer than that - and i've been painting a little. Here's my two latest works...

this was inspired by Alphonse Mucha's art...

i'm not sure what inspired this but i always love using a little henna design...

well, hmm...

2009-10-15T19:25:00.001-07:00

Ok, so i want to start blogging again. I'm back from Switzerland and i'm in Texas doing... well, nothing. I've been asking God 'what's next' and He seems to be telling me to rest and wait. In other words, take a chill pill :-D I don't want to waste all of time so I'm painting some, doing a little reading and, hopefully, working here and there. So, I don't have a whole lot to write about but since I have the time, i would like to blog a little.

This afternoon i had a post already to go and Photobucket was giving me some issues with resizing my photos. hmm. I could either have really massive photos that wouldn't show up entirely on my blog, OR i could little-itty-bitty thumbnail-size photos. What's the deal yo? Then I tried resizing to photos in iPhoto and that didn't seem to do the trick either. Is it just operator problems? hm. I'm hoping to have this sorted soon. Until then, please don't hold your breath...

are you happy (meal) now?

2009-08-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

This was my homework for last week, Packaging. everyone in class had to design their own kids meal box for a fake french restaurant that sells kebabs... yeah, a little strange. We each had to come up with a mascot and 3 different ideas for the box design to pitch to our "client" (our teacher for the week)...

one of the reasons that i haven't posted a blog in a while...

2009-08-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

every week, for the Design School, we have to complete 4 pages in our design journals. The first page is an illustration of what we learned that week. The next 2 pages are for the 5 main points of the week. And the last page is reversed for a nature or characteristic of God that you learned or experienced during the week. And you just can't slap these pages together, they have to be 'designed'. Here's my first 2 weeks...

Week 1 was about God and Creation. He is the Designer of everything.

5 main points...

last page. those are the lyrics to This Is My Father's World...

Week 2. This design is loosely based on The Book of Kells :-)

Yes, that is CRAP. It stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity...

the tree is (carefully) cut from a small tree leaf. i was inspired by a picture on the internet...

do-do-do, lookin' out my backdoor...

2009-07-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

my room is in the main building of the YWAM campus. And instead of having a window, we have doors that open up to a nice, big balcony that overlooks the back parking lot and the rest of the property...

yes, those are cows. we use their milk everyday and if we wind shifts, then we get to smell them...

for those of you who don't have facebook...

2009-07-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

i posted some of these pictures on my facebook account. i realized that not everyone has an account - or is one of my facebook friends. So i decided to post them on my blog too! These are pictures from my quick trip to Germany, before i came to Switzerland. My friend, Anne, took me to Koln (pronounced like cologne) where we visited The Dome - a church building that was started in 1248 but wasn't finished until the 1800's!

The Dome...

the back of The Dome...

just a really funky fountain near the Dome...

me and Anne...

inside the Dome...

this guy is just chillin'...

crazy-cool pipe organ...

one of the many beautiful stained-glass windows...

one of the beautiful cobble-stone streets in Koln...

the Rhine River...

there was just so many gorgeous buildings in Koln...

the West Gate... i think...

the Koln train station...

we then took the train to Dusseldorf...

this building had a wonderful chocolate shop on the first floor. very tasty!

where do i come up with them?!?

2009-06-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

here's my latest...

the "never, ever" is in reference to Alice in Wonderland where they sing "and i never, ever, ever do a thing about the weather, for the weather never, ever does a thing for me..."

these two were inspired by the oven in the old Dick Van Dyke show :-)

no school like old school...

2009-06-17T12:24:00.001-07:00

Here's a blast from the past. Today my mom handed me this calendar that i made when i was 14. It was my Christmas present for everyone on my mom's side of the family (the Grimm's) in 1994. 1994! :-0 As you can see, it's not a "regular" calendar. It just lists everyone's birthdays and anniversaries...

here's a little bit humor. a very little bit...

most of the drawings were from a "how to draw comics" book that we owned. but i remember that i couldn't find a drawing of a turkey, so i improvised...

i remember being very proud at how the old, crappy house turned out. i don't know why...

vintage, sweet vintage...

2009-06-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

this is me. i like old stuff. i like stuff from the 40's, 50's and 60's - particularly. i have vintage clothes. i have vintage home decor. my favorite movies are old and in black & white. so naturally, when i paint, it (usually) has a vintage vibe. this is what i did this past week...

good grief...

2009-06-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

i know, i know. I haven't posted in a while. I'm sorry. Most of my May was full of working, packing, or hanging-out with friends. I didn't actually paint much of anything. But now I'm in texas and i have some time to paint... and my sister, Courtney was getting on my case about not posting...

playing catch-up...

2009-05-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

so, i've actually been fairly creative lately. Though, i haven't taken the time to post any pictures. Please forgive!...

this is a picture i painted a while back, but i finally framed it. it's very pink...

my new favorite thing to do is cover a canvas with material and paint on it. i like how this one turned out - maybe i'll keep it...

this was for my friends, Courtney and Joshua. this was his dad's silverware as a kid...

i found this old radio at goodwill. it has a handle so immediately i thought, "purse" or some sort of container...

so i ripped out the guts (not as easy as it sounds) and i covered it with this beautiful material. i think it turned out nice...

busy bee...

2009-04-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

I did both of these today. my current favorite thing to do is use vintage material for my backgrounds. I covered this canvas with my new handy-dandy upholstery stapler (which is awesome! why didn't i buy one sooner?). Then i just painted on top...

this one makes me think of mom...

these are a few of my favorite things...

2009-04-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

my friends, Rachelle and David, asked me to paint something for their new baby's room. i was excited because a lot of my paintings end up being child-like and whimsical. They already have the painting now, but I thought i would share it with you...

that's their dog, Jake :-)

my go-to subject...

2009-04-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

Trees. I love them. I like to paint them. And i've painted a few! This is a canvas i covered with material then painted...

an actual before and after...

2009-04-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Ricci mentioned that she was tired of one of her wall-hangings. She asked me if she should get rid of it and i said to let me 'play with it' first. :-) So today, i asked her about colors, showed her some material, then i headed up to my room for a few hours. Here's what happened...

before

after

before and after... well, just after...

2009-04-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

So, i've started following this great blog called, Design *Sponge. If you're curious: http://www.designspongeonline.com/ I love it! Every time i check it out, i get inspired! I especially like the 'before & afters'. The last few times i've gone to Goodwill or the Sally Army, i've been looking for a "b&a" project of my own. Nothing too big, but something fun. So yesterday, Ricci and i went to Goodwill and i found a cheesy little picture in a plain-jane wood frame. UNFORTUNATELY, i forgot to take a 'before' picture... but here's the end product...

Cupcake decorating party #2...

2009-04-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

A few of the gals couldn't make it to Wednesday night (see post below) and we had a TON of candy left over, so we had another par-tay...

this one i made specifically to eat...

Ricci and Sarah working hard... or hardly working...

it says Lunch, but it's hard to read from this angle...

Olivia was very intense... :-)

(little) Olivia has blue lips!

this was Silas's cupcake. Now, here's a smart boy. He came in and just wanted to eat the candy but we told him that he were for the cupcakes (after he already had a few pieces). We asked him if he wanted to make a cupcake and he said yes. So he grabbed a mini cupcake, decorated it and left the room. Came back a few minutes later, with the same cupcake, minus the candy and asked to put more candy on. We laughed but let him do it. He came back, 2 more times!

Cupcake decorating party #1...

2009-04-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

I had a few of my friends asked me to teach them how to do a little cake decorating, so we got together last Wednesday. It ended up being a going-away party too for our friend, Cindy. Here's some pics of the tasty treats we made...

i got this idea from this great book called, Hello, Cupcake...

Oreo sunflowers, yummy!

Olivia and her "fish bowl" cupcake...

yeah, it's made with a mini oreo...

bird's nest...

this is Cindy, and it was her going away party...

it's like Willy Wonka's factory...

Brenda was quite proud of her easter basket cupcake...

Ricci and Jeremy - if he was a cupcake...

candle light, wine, oreos, airheads, cupcakes - so romantic...

thinking of africa maybe?

2009-03-31T17:41:00.000-07:00

here's a little something i painted today. i'm not sure if it's finished...

it's kind of an inside-joke...

2009-03-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

I know i haven't posted in a while. But i haven't done much, creative-wise. I made a birthday cake for a friend but it wasn't the 'decorating kind'. I've done a little more work on my henna chair but i need some more Sharpie's to finish. I kind of feel 'stopped-up' when it comes to painting right now. I have a friend who has requested a painting for their baby's nursery and I've been working on a few ideas. But i can't paint anything yet because i'm still waiting for her to send the color swatches - don't feel any pressure Chelle! Plus, i'm waiting to hear if they want to see sketches or if they trust me :-) Anyhoo, today i punched a little hole in the creative dam and had a little fun. It's kind of an inside-joke... my family will get it...

please, have a seat...

2009-03-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing my chair project - see 2 blog posts below. I've done the pillow, now i've done the seat cushion...

my canvas...

i've only done the one side, for now...

i think i'm gonna need some more Sharpie's...

there i go again, being resourceful...

2009-03-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

I had an old lamp shade that i was getting rid of. But it had a few marks on it (like my chair - see blog entry below) so decided to give it some pizzazz...

this was my canvas, this time around...

first i sketched it out - i can't take credit for the design. i found the picture on the net...

then, the paint...

ahhhh, the finished project...

this is what happens when you're resourceful...

2009-03-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

I have this chair. It's a great chair. It's from Ikea originally, but i found it on the side of the road. It's cream so there were a few small marks on it. I had loaned it to some friends because my (current) room is too small for it. But my friends have moved so they returned it. I've decided to keep it in my room even though it's a little too big. But, because of the cream color, there's a few more marks on it - it's not my friends fault, it would have happened if i had kept it. Ikea has a cover for it but i don't need to spend the money. I could buy some fairly cheap material to try to cover it myself, but with all my "crafty-ness", sewing is NOT one of my talents. So, i'm trying something that does use my giftings. Sharpies! (one of my favorite mediums!) I'm just starting with the little pillow that goes on the chair to see how i like it. I decided to use various henna (mehndi) designs. This is my canvas...

this is about halfway though...

this is the end product, for now :-)

Ace of Cakes, here i come...

2009-03-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

This past week, i haven't had much time to be creative. So i let it ALL out tonight. I just bought this great book called Hello, Cupcake! It has a bunch of fun ideas and it got me inspired...

for st. patty's day...

for fun...

i made some cupcakes just like this for my birthday one year. yes, i decorated my own birthday cake :-)

these are for Olivia and Silas - they are BIG fans...

it's a 2 part-er...

a little India influence...

it's the most wonderful time of the year...

2009-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

:-) well, Easter is coming and you know what that means: CADBURY CREME EGGS!!! I just had my first one of the season. I had gone into Michael's to see if the canvases were on sale. I walked by a stand of easter candy and i saw it. One last Cadbury Egg in a otherwise empty box. At first i resisted... then i caved. I love them. As a kid, my mom use to let us only eat one half at a time. I remember begging, every single time, to PLEASE let me eat the whole thing...

hee-hee!

thank you, i made it...

2009-03-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to grow my hair out and usually, when it get to a certain length, I can't take it anymore so i cut it short again. So, i've been looking for different ideas to help me thru the awkward 'growing out' stage. I thought feathers would be fun and retro, so i bought a few at the craft store and made some hair-flair! I wore these peacock feathers to church last Sunday and got a ton of compliments...

and the close up...

Urban inspiration...

2009-03-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

For the past week, i've been wanting to paint but i wasn't quite "inspired". I had a few ideas but i was left unimpressed. But yesterday, my friend, Ricci and i were running some errands and she had to return some shoes at Urban Outfitters. While she was deciding how to spend her store credit, i found an Alice In Wonderland book illustrated by one of my favorite artist, Mary Blair. And it was on SALE!! :-) So, while Ricci was in the dressing room, I sat down to look through my new book and guess what... i got inspired...

look mom! no brushes...

2009-02-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

... sort of. Yesterday, all day long, i wanted to be creative. I tried to get inspired by looking on the internet, going thru some of my books, going for a walk. But no dice. I finally saw some colors on a blog that i wanted to play around with, so i pulled out the paints. I decided that i wanted a lot of texture so i would use my palette knife for fun. (I did actually use a brush for the tree truck) Here's the result:

memories of india...

2009-02-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

Today i did some henna, or mehndi. Henna is a paste made from a plant that temporarily dyes the skin. Which is great for me because i don't think that i want the 'permanent' part of a tattoo but i still like 'decorating' my skin. I use bring out the henna during a girls night and i end up tattooing just about everyone. But today, i just did it on myself - which is not all that easy...

This is what it looks like when you first put it on. The longer you leave it on, the darker it will dye the skin. I try to leave it on at least 2 hours. I can't take credit for this design, i got it off the internet - as i do most of my henna designs...

After the henna dried, you flake it off, wash with soap, and put on some lotion. This will actually get a little darker by tomorrow.

now i see it....

2009-02-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

I've been having fun lately with Picasa. It's a program for editing photos. I've been taking some of my old pics and adjusting them to what i was envisioning when i took the photo. Here's just one...

i've been missing the beach but it's just too darn cold to go to the coast...

as seen on tv...

2009-02-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

I like to watch a lot of those decorating shows on tv. If you watch enough of them (or too much of them), you see a few 'repeats'. What i mean is, they will show you something that's like this totally cool idea, and you'll see the same idea on another show. Most of the stuff is pretty original, this only happens every now and again. Here's something that i've seen a few time but it's still a great idea for those of us that like vintage fabric but aren't a seamstress. Like me!

The fabric with the red and blue flowers is the bottom part of a very long dress. It was just too long so i made it shorter. OK, i can't sew but i can hem...

This fabric was given to me by my sister-in-law. I'm glad that i finally got to use it...

This was from a shirt that i really wanted to wear but it just looked terrible on me...

i don't wanna grow up...

2009-02-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

if you read my last blog, you would know that this past week, i worked as a teacher's assistant for an art class for 1st the 5th grade kids. here are just 3 of the kids with their dioramas...

a week of art and kids...

2009-02-19T14:31:00.000-08:00

this week, it's winter break and i've been working as a teacher's assistant for the Creative Arts Workshop. (i've taking some classes with them before) 9am to 3pm with 10 kids from the 1st to 5th grade. now, i thought that i was pretty patient with kids but i've come to realize that i'm more patient with little kids, like 3 to 5 year olds - that's the age i work with on Sundays. With the little kids at church, you can do almost everything for and that's what they need. But these older kids want to do most things for themselves, but they don't think or listen and you still have to watch (some of them) almost the whole time. it's extremely tiring. But then today, after they all left, i was still cleaning up the mess that we told them to clean up and i discovered that one of the girls had been writing on the chalk board and left us a little message: "Nellie and Kelly are great. They teach good art." (Nellie is the teacher) Well, i just had to laugh! :-) I love working with kids! :-)

one thing that makes me sad about this week though is: I haven't been able to be crafty. i'm too busy helping the kids, i only get a few random moments to actually create. Today we were working on cut-outs, and here's mine...

a new purse... for me!

2009-02-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

i went to TJMaxx on Monday with my friends. i always look at the purses and there was one that i wanted. it was fun and quirky, like me. But i was able to talk myself out of buying it because i knew that i had some plain canvas bags sitting in my room, just waiting to be painted/decorated and used. so, last night, i painted one...

i have a few more bags, let me know if you want one! :-)

isn't it romantic...

2009-02-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

my latest painting... oddly enough, i painted it on valentine's day. it's a little more lovely-dovey than most of my stuff. but i was inspired while i was watching an old Jean Harlow movie, Platinum Blonde.

sorry that it's a little on the blurry side...

how do you spell that, stuart or stewart?

2009-02-12T18:36:00.000-08:00

i was feeling a little playful and was inspired by the artwork of Stuart Davis and Robert Stewart...

years in the making...

2009-02-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

i got the idea for this painting while watching Monty Python (and the Holy Grail, duh), like seriously, years ago. i finally got it done. is it amazing? no. is it fun? yes. :-)

Alphonse Mucha...

2009-02-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

... my current inspiration. He was an Art Nouveau painter. Last name pronounced: moo-ka. I love his use of circles and how his paintings seemed to be moving. just beautiful! please, be inspired...

sellin' my wares online...

2009-02-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

I've decided to try to sell some of my paintings online. Etsy.com is a site for selling and buying handmade crafts. I don't know how fast anything will sell or if it will at all. But how will i know until i try. Please take a look at the few things i've put up so far, and while you're there take a look at the rest of the site. To go directly to my stuff: www.craftykellyjo.etsy.com

these are the paintings i've posted thus far...

we all scream for ice cream...

2009-02-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

Recently, my great-grandmother (Mama) was moved into an assisted living home. But she had to down-size because of smaller quarters, some of her stuff was divided among the family. One of the things my mom saved for me was one of her dessert dishes. Mama almost always had ice cream; she knew how to treat her great-grandkids! These dishes were my favorite to eat out of. I decided, instead of using it for ice cream, i'd keep it on my bedside table as a "collect-all" dish. i always have earrings, hair clips, safety pins, etc. lying about. Now i have a place to put them!

in my room, in my room... from that beach boys song...

2009-02-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

i thought you might like to see what my little room looks like...

cozy!

you are my inspiration...

2009-02-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

one night, last week, i went to the kitchen to get a drink. as i was in there, Olivia (5), came through the kitchen draped in a blanket to the point where i could only see her feet. i asked if she was the blanket monster. no reply. she seemed to be on a mission. but she gave me an idea for a painting...

here's Olivia at her birthday last year...

here's the painting...

coffee art?

2009-01-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

my sister, courtney, is performing at our friends coffee house (Urban Dog Coffee - google them) tomorrow night and if you come you might see some of these paintings hangin' around...

ARTn't you on vacation?

2009-01-11T14:38:00.000-08:00

some paintings while i'm on holiday...

there's no cookie cutters for art...

2009-01-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

... unless it's the art of making cookies...

we didn't get to make christmas cookies this year in the ramsey house, so we made new years cookies...

winter wonderland...

2008-12-20T20:19:00.000-08:00

at the start of things...

pretty much the scariest snowman ever...

frozen gnome-sicles...

i was not happy that i had to work...

D.C. baby!

2008-11-30T18:32:00.000-08:00

while i was in Maryland, Oleathia and I went to D.C. for just a couple of hours. It was really cold and really windy, but really fun... the Capitol building...

me and oleathia with the Capitol building in the background...

the Washington monument...

up close and personal...

the White House...

the WW II memorial...

just for fun...

the reflecting pool...

the Lincoln memorial...

Mr. Lincoln...

hidden on the WWII memorial... hee-hee...

woah, 2 blog posts in 1 day. take it easy...

2008-11-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

here's a few of my latest paintings, i think i've been in a playful mood...

this is a logo mock up i did for my friend Ricci, she cuts hair. my hair too...

for those of you who are curious...

2008-11-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

here's some pictures of Woodland. it's only 1 of 2 locations, but it's the one that i worked at most often...

our pretty alleyway...

obviously...

here's my corner: i sat here when i wasn't making drinks...

here's some 'artwork' i did around the shop...

points to ponder...

2008-11-14T05:46:00.001-08:00

- Since i've gotten a bike, all of my favorite days have become my least favorite. Windy and rainy days are no fun on a bike. Grant it, i could walk, but i get there so much faster if i ride. Plus my feet really can't take walking for 20 minutes, standing up for 6 to 7 hours, then walking 20 minutes again. Yeah, i know, I'm getting old... :-)

- Why are some customers easy, or even fun, to serve while others are like cruel and unusual torture? Is it the attitude? "Just give me my coffee so i can have my caffeine fix." "Starbucks was really busy so i guess i'll bless you guys with my order." Is it the requests? "I know you already started making my drink order, but can i change that to a *half-caf* and use 1% instead of whole milk?" "Can i get a medium mocha in a large cup and don't make it too sweet?" I had a lady come in last week that ordered 2 drinks, one for herself and the other to take to someone. That *someone* had the moxie to ask that we make her latte *good* this time. Apparently, she had one of ours before that wasn't up to par. Hey, i may not be the best barista, but i always make my drinks as best as i know how! - of course, i didn't say that to her. It's a good thing that i only have a week left...

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Gnomes...

2008-11-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

So, instead of riding my bike downtown today, i walked to the bank. I thought it might be nice to take some pictures so i brought my camera. Unfortunately, the battery was almost out. But before it ran out, i came across a little brownstone that had about 8 gnomes on their front stairs...

and 2 blocks later, i came across another 1. scary...

who takes pics of fall and listens to Queen...

2008-11-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

i do! er... i did...

wow, check out this CRAZY hair cut...

2008-11-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_mmBw3uzPnJI/RkD_4U-tgwI/AAAAAAAAEGQ/NOGV3mzSKJs/s1600-h/crazy_hair_styles_28.jpg

I'm in a love/hate relationship...

2008-11-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

... with the wind.

As long as i can remember, i've loved bad weather. Go ahead, ask my mom. Rain, lightning, thunder, and wind! I love windy days; especially in the fall. The orange, red, and yellow leaves swirling though the air. Big gusts that almost blow your scarfs off... there's nothing better. :-) Unless....... you're riding a bike. Don't get me wrong, i generally love riding my bike. But try riding directly into a 30 mph gust of wind, uphill. yeah, uphill. Not fun. The last 2 days it's been awfully windy around here and i'm not enjoying it so much, bike-wise that is...

read my lips: n-o....

2008-10-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

So, i live with a great family, The Harke's. (plus The Clark's) The Harke's has 3 awesome kids, Olivia (5), Silas (3), and Cora (almost 1). Tonight, I witnessed Cora's first 'argument' with her mom. Cora, as most kids, loves to get into everything! One of her favorites is the kids plastic plates and bowls. Ricci (her mom) doesn't mind her doing it but she does leave quite the mess. So tonight, after Cora tore through all the plastic ware and got bored, Ricci cleaned up. Then Cora made her way back and noticed that the floor looked too bare and decided to get the plates again. As she reach for the basket, Ricci said, "Cora! No!" Cora looked right up at Ricci, screeched, and started pulling out the plates. Once again, Ricci told Cora to stop and she (Cora) did the same thing: screeched and grabbed another plate. It was such a defiant little screech for a 1 year old. She can't even talk and she already knows how to say no.

inspired...

2008-09-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

after going to Mystic Aquarium i got inspired by the beautiful creatures...

1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish...

2008-09-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

On Sunday i had a chance to go to the famous (at least here in Connecticut) Mystic Aquarium. Here are some pictures of the lovely animals...

tgi...w?

2008-09-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

way back in the 1990's, friday was the night to watch t.v. TGIF. our family (and others) would gather 'round and watch 'family oriented' tv shows like, Family Matters, Step By Step, Perfect Strangers, Boy Meets World (but we really didn't watch Boy)... but now... wednesday is now my night! :-) america's next top model. yes, i LOVE it. i could care less about Tyra. it's the creativity in the photo shoots, the fashion, and the drama. it's entertaining. Then there's Project Runway. awesome. I totally wish i could sew after watching that show. it's great!

just a little flashback...

babies everywhere...

2008-09-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

i have quite a few friends that are pregnant. here's the second gift i've painted...

the art and flair of... kellyjo?

2008-09-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite artists for the past year has been Mary Blair. She did some AMAZING concept art for Disney's Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland, and Peter Pan. i love her stuff! and i have noticed that my last two paintings are definitely inspired by her...

this is for some friends of mine that are having a baby girl...

this was inspired by a show i watched on the discovery channel about the giant squid. it lives so deep in the ocean, there isn't a whole lot that we know about it. I'm not particularly into squid but the movement and the color of this mysterious creature sparked my creativity...

this coming January...

2008-08-23T03:49:00.000-07:00

So, I’m applying to a YWAM school in January. It’s a school for art design, like advertising and logos. It’s something that I’ve always liked, without ever really noticing. I actually like looking at the adverts in magazines to see if I think they are doing there job by being eye-catching. If in one glace, I am intrigued enough to take a second look. The same goes for art, for me. I like a lot of pop and modern art: very graphic, brilliant colors, sharp lines and shapes. I had some friends take this school at another YWAM, and they got a lot out of it and encouraged me to look into it. So, I am. J Here’s a little more info found at the website:

Good communication has its core in good design; products and services are communicated in a multitude of ways from billboards and brochures to interactive cd-roms and websites. Design is all around you - everything from the milk carton you use on your cereal in the morning to the train time table, the newspaper you read on the way to work and the posters advertising the latest product as you leave the station. All this even before you start your day! Everything you see around you has some kind of logo, typeface or image designed to communicate what it is and what it does.At YWAM, we want to see you trained with excellence in design as well as giving you a biblical basis for your work. We want to equip you to continue in missions, go on to university or the work place. Whichever direction you take we want to enable you to play your part in helping to fulfill the great commission and increase the Kingdom of God.

COURSE OVERVIEW - During the course you will learn the process of design, spending a substantial amount of time brain storming ideas and creatively solving design problems. As you work through the course you will meet regularly with teachers and school staff to guide you to the best possible solutions for each assignment. Most weeks incorporate an element of sketching and producing a final piece of work. As part of the curriculum we will show you how to present your work, culminating with an exhibition at the end of the school.

WEEKLY TOPICS
- Visual and Godly Communication
- Color Theory
- Elements of Design 1 and 2
- Introduction to Freehand
- Typography 1 and 2
- History of Design
- Logo Design
- Corporate Identity
- Introduction to Photoshop
- Advertising
- Relationship with a Copy Writer
- Visit to a printers
- Adobe After Effects or Apple Motion
- Final Project/ Exhibition

As with all schools you will be required to attend community worship and prayer times as well as small groups, one on one discipleship and work duties as part of the weekly schedule. In addition you will be expected to submit your journal, creatively expressing all you have learnt though that week’s teaching.

DATES - Saturday 19th January - Saturday 11th April 2008.

COST - The final cost is as follows (in British Pounds Sterling): Registration Fee £25, School fee £1,000 and Lab Fee £800 Total = £1,825. About $3500, plus a plane ticket.

http://www.holmsted.org.uk/

No use in crying over spilt sugar... or is it?

2008-08-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today I opened at work, which means waking up at 5:10am. Whatever. I got up, rode my bike to work, made some coffee, opened the store. No problem. Then about 10:30 one of customers mentioned that we were almost out of sugar as he handed me the sugar bowl. “Thanks” I replied as I got the sugar bag to refill the bowl. I emptied the last little bit into the bowl and made a mental note to remind my boss to get some more. Just then a customer walked in, one of our regulars. I got him his small house coffee and he went to go fix it up and he asked if we had any sugar. “Yes, I’ve got it back here” I said. As I went to hand the sugar bowl to him, I hit it on the corner of the counter and it spilt all over the cash register and counter top. Normally, I would have gotten angry with myself, and perhaps, say a cuss word. But I didn’t. All I wanted to do was cry. Since the customer was still standing there (feeling sorry for me, by the look on his face), I tried to recover and say something funny. But my mind was blank. All I wanted to do was cry. I didn’t; I had customers. For some reason it left me feeling extremely depressed and low, as though I could cry at the drop of a hat. It felt like I had let the whole world down and that I should just give up. It was weird. I had never quite felt like that before, let alone, over just spilling some lousy sugar. But, after about 30 minutes I was fine. I didn’t feel low, I actually felt kind of stupid for feeling that way in the first place. I mean, what happened? Would I have actually felt better if I had just cried?

Not the most uplifting blog, sorry. Don’t worry, I feel fine now.

so my little sister will stop cursing at me thru facebook...

2008-07-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

i had the great fortune of going to new york twice in one week, here are some pictures of the big apple...

times square...

also, times square...

yep, even stromtroppers go to NY for vacation... actually they were promoting the new star wars movie...

home of Cood Morning America... i totally watch them...

one of the many beautiful Cathedrals in NY...

part of Rockefeller Plaza...

"welcome to good burger. home of the good burger. can i take your order?"

- that's for you Nourtney

the MoMA

2008-07-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

muesum of modren art...

Rosenquist, i'm a fan...

Van Gogh, yeah, he's pretty good...

Warhol, obivously...
Warhol...

Picasso, i'm not his biggest fan, but i do like his color palette...

Picasso...

Pollock, up close and personal...

Jasper Johns, i'm also a fan...

Matisse, i LOVE his colors...

Monet, this is only one canvas of Water Lillies, it's amazing... i wish i owned it...

these are a few of my favorite things...

2008-07-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

my (current) favorite pair of shoes... purchased in south africa at Mr. Price, for real, that's the name of the store...

my new "toy", yep, a nintendo DS, nice...

in south africa i told kathryn that i wanted a bag that said, "i heart samwise", so i made one myself...

i wear this shirt almost every other day, yeah, i'm a geek...

i LOVE this soundtrack, i really liked the movie too, but the soundtrack is awesome! i'm listening to it right now...

a freshly made bed; it just doesn't happen everyday...

Coffee snob?

2008-07-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

Sn-offee
or
cob?....

so, for those of you who don’t know: I’m working part-time at a local coffee and tea café. It’s a nice place. We have really good coffee and like 100 different kinds of tea. We have a lot of faithful costumers that are really nice. And now we two locations. – I kind of sound like a commercial… anyhoo, today a guy and his daughter came in and his daughter had Dunkin’ Donuts. DUNKIN’ freakin’ DONUTS! Now, I think I have the right to be offended that they brought stuff from another coffee place into ‘my’ coffee place. But my first thought was, “how could they drink Dunkin’?” What?? Should I care that they bought Dunkin’ instead of coffee from us? People have different taste buds. Maybe they saw Dunkin’ first. Sometimes it’s easier to go to someplace familiar. Yeah, maybe they were from out-of-town. Maybe they have a tight budget (gas is like $4.40 a gallon). Our coffee is a little pricer than Dunkin’ but that’s because it’s really good coffee (and GREAT service). – there I go again… anyhoo, who am I to judge?

But just don’t bring other coffee into ‘my’ coffee place… it’s weird.

finally, a new post...

2008-06-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so i'm sorry that I haven't posted anything in a month. I guess i was rebeling from posting every week in South Africa. :-) well, i'm back and i hope to post more than once a month! So, without further ado:

i thought i should post some of my paintings from the last month. It's not very much but you can see a theme. I have always loved movie posters (and the actually movies too). I like how the artists try to capture the theme/idea/premise of the movie on one single piece of paper. It's amazing to me, some more than others. Some of my favorite posters are the very simple ones, such as these from Saul Bass (a personal favorite of mine):

So, i used Bass as my inspiration for a few movie posters of my own design... it was fun...

These next two don't quite fit in the movie poster catagory but you can still see simplicity and emphasis on shapes...

last post from South Africa...

2008-04-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, i had a great blog and some great pictures to post for my last blog from S.A. BUT, i didn't upload it to my flash drive. So, it's still on my laptop at the house. bummer. Well, i leave on Wednesday and arrive at JFK on Thursday. An 18 hour flight all by myself. I'll be sleeping a lot. :-) Please continue to check my blog as i will be letting you know what i will be doing for the rest of the year. (Plus i'll post pictures of new paintings) Thank you all for your prayers and support!

sorry, no pictures... just read...

2008-04-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

Monday.
Sometime after 9 am.
I had just gotten back from community worship and prayer. It happens every Monday. All the YWAM staff and students show up. This week was a little different. We didn’t have a speaker; it was a week for outreach prep. Which meant the outreach team would be on their own schedule. So, right after prayer and worship, most people went either back to their homes or to the office. I went back to the house. I had only been there a few minutes and I turned around to head back out the front door when I saw something that I didn’t know how to handle. A long, gray SNAKE sliding it’s way into OUR HOUSE! It just kept coming and coming. (It was a little shorter than arm’s length.) I was completely stunned. I just kept saying, ‘There’s a snake coming into our house. It’s in our house. The snake came into our house.’ I didn’t know what to do next. Lynn came closer and so did Heidi but still we just kind of stood there. Thank God that our maid was there. Nomsa had been outside and must have seen the snake heading for our door because she was not that far behind it. Her English isn’t that great but she was telling us to get back. But she was also handing me the broom. Now I had seen one of the guys kill another snake that was on our property and that snake was fast! So, was Nomsa wanting me to kill this snake with a broom? WHAT? But I didn’t even have time to ask her because as soon as I grab the broom she started whacking the snake with the mop! WHACK! She hit it about 7 times before it looked like she finally killed it. Then she picked it up with the mop handle and carried it off, probably to the edge of the property. Crazy! Later that day she showed me that she had killed another snake heading for the front door, it was a lot smaller than the other one. But that’s 2 snakes in 1 day trying to come into our house. We had been told that since the weather is cooling off that they would go into hibernation. Right.

Now as shocking as that whole experience was, the biggest shock didn’t come until Thursday. Another family that live on our same property (and they’re on staff), came to our house and showed me a picture of a snake that they got off the internet. They were asking me if it was the snake that came into the house. I told them that I didn’t get a good look at its face and they should ask Nomsa. Which they did and she said that it was the same kind of snake. A black mumba. The second most deadly snake in the world. In our house. A black mumba bite can kill you in 20 minutes. There is an anti-venom, and thank goodness there’s a clinic on our road (about 10 mins away) that has some. Can you believe it? A black mumba was it our house. I totally believe that God was watching over us. Black mumba’s are usually VERY fast but because it was in the morning and it was still pretty cool outside, it was moving slow enough to kill. Plus we think it was a baby since it was only arm’s length and they can grow to 7 feet. Crazy!

info on HIV and AIDS...

2008-04-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we had a man come in from a local HIV/AIDS clinic. We currently live on the same street and have worked with them before. The man came in to share about HIV, AIDS and the work that they, the ACTS Clinic, do here in South Africa.

ACTS stands for: AIDS Care Training & Support

ACTS clinic sees over 20,000 patients a month

H – Human
I – Immunodeficiency
V – Virus

A – Acquired
I – Immune
D – Deficient
S – Syndrome (a group of diseases)

At the end of 2006, 2.1 million people died of HIV. 2.8 million were newly infected.

HIV doesn’t kill; it just lowers your CD4 count so that you are susceptible to worse diseases that your body can not fight.

Under 19yrs– only 5% that are tested are positive. 19yrs to 29yrs – 40% tested are positive.

There are actually 2 types of HIV: HIV1 which is the worst and the most common. HIV2 is a milder virus and is found more in West Africa. Though, you can never just have HIV2 without already having HIV1.

It’s easier for women to catch HIV than men because of how the virus develops. Of people infected 60% are women and 40% are men.

TB is a new epidemic. It’s infecting and killing people who are HIV positive because they have no immune system.

AIDS is the end stage of HIV if the infection hasn’t been treated.

HIV is treatable and you can live a long healthy life if you take the right antivirals and take care of yourself.

human faces are hard...

2008-04-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

here's my (what i would consider) first attempt at faces, and charcoal...

they're not bad until you look at the photos that i was basing them off of and you realize that they look nothing like those kids... oh well... i have to start somewhere...

art's cool... say it fast...

2008-04-06T03:56:00.000-07:00

a few of my newest paintings...

last week...

2008-04-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

This past week was pretty mellow for me. Which is what I needed. The week before was great just extremely busy. Also, we had a team of 5 ladies from the states, living in our house which already had 8 females. That was 12 females using 1 bathroom (Lynn just shared hers with Rich). Everything worked out alright, sometimes there wasn’t quite enough hot water but you work with what you got. The team that came in was fun and we kept them really busy with local outreach opportunities. The team brought with them a plethora of toys and activities for the kids…

the company that one of the ladies worked for donated a bunch of stamping stuff. the kids really liked it and she left it all with us so we can continue to take it out to the different groups that we work with...

the kids REALLY loved the play-doh that the ladies brought from the states. you can't buy it here...

jenga. who knew you could have so much fun with wooden blocks...

the team brought footballs, soccer balls, and bouncy balls too...

there was a dentist on the team and she was able to give a couple of presentations on tooth care. Plus she had toothbrushes and paste to pass out to the kids...

happy easter...

2008-03-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

we took a few group photos after church... say cheese!

It actually rained pretty hard most of the afternoon, so everything was held inside...

look at all that food, glorious food...

yeah, me being the easter bunny... maybe it was a sugar-high...

Emma Grace getting a little help finding some eggs...

the bunny cakes that Jordan (one of our students) made... it was red velvet...

time to relax and play a few games...

Rich didn't quite make it...

Lynn found an easter lilly... a nice end to a nice holiday...

dinner's served...

2008-03-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, I did something that I never would have guessed that I would ever do...

It was my night to make dinner and I choose to make Breakfast Burritos. Lynn, Heidi and Kathryn had only ever had like McDonald’s and were grossed out by them. So I decided to enlighten them. Unfortunatly, you can’t always get the same thing here that you would be able to get in the states. We have been making our own flour tortillas because to ones here don’t taste right. So I made my own for dinner. I didn’t ask Lynn to get hash browns at the store because we already have potatoes so I figured I could make them myself. Well, think again. I tried ‘baking’ them in the oven (a little healthier than frying) and that didn’t really work. Then Lynn tried “frying” on the stove-top and that didn’t quite work either. But they were good enough to eat. The eggs were the easy part. But the thing that I NEVER thought I would do was… Let me back up again… There’s a butcher here that we use when we need… well beef, and the like. Though, we’ve had some trouble with finding some of the same cuts that we get in the states. So, I asked Lynn to pick up some sausage (ground pork) for my dinner night. She left the order with the butch and when she picked in up it was small (finger-size) sausage links. Not what I was asking for. But the links wouldn’t work very well for the burritos (too big) so… I pain-stackingly cut open each one and ‘squeezed’ out all the pork. Yeah, gross. And that’s something that I never thought I would do.

P.S. they were great! Not exactly like home but everyone liked them.

kel-logg

are Indian kids the cutest kids ever?

a few photos from India...

a few thoughts from India...

phun with photoshop...

missing the northeast...

thank you, very much...

old 'stamping' ground...

India 2010!

bringing sexy back...

mild obsession monday: it's coming! it's coming!

AHHHHH!

art deco - a personal fav...

hold the phone...

mild obsession monday...

on my mind...

new medium?

why am i sad?

attention class!

top 10?

flashback...

a new thing: Stuart Davis

what happened?

because you asked...

oh baby!

back to school?

since i have some time on my hands...

well, hmm...

are you happy (meal) now?

one of the reasons that i haven't posted a blog in a while...

do-do-do, lookin' out my backdoor...

for those of you who don't have facebook...

where do i come up with them?!?

no school like old school...

vintage, sweet vintage...

good grief...

playing catch-up...

busy bee...

these are a few of my favorite things...

my go-to subject...

an *actual* before and after...

before and after... well, just after...

Cupcake decorating party #2...

Cupcake decorating party #1...

thinking of africa maybe?

it's kind of an inside-joke...

please, have a seat...

there i go again, being resourceful...

this is what happens when you're resourceful...

Ace of Cakes, here i come...

it's the most wonderful time of the year...

thank you, i made it...

Urban inspiration...

look mom! no brushes...

memories of india...

now i see it....

as seen on tv...

i don't wanna grow up...

a week of art and kids...

a new purse... for me!

isn't it romantic...

how do you spell that, stuart or stewart?

years in the making...

Alphonse Mucha...

sellin' my wares online...

we all scream for ice cream...

in my room, in my room... from that beach boys song...

you are my inspiration...

coffee art?

ARTn't you on vacation?

there's no cookie cutters for art...

winter wonderland...

D.C. baby!

woah, 2 blog posts in 1 day. take it easy...

for those of you who are curious...

points to ponder...

Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Gnomes...

who takes pics of fall and listens to Queen...

wow, check out this CRAZY hair cut...

I'm in a love/hate relationship...

an actual before and after...