More Winter Wonderland!

The water was dripping down onto the icicles, and so this more of an action shot.

Winter Wonderland

There are bushes in front of our apartment that had about a hundred icicles hanging from it. This past week that have started to melt, but I found a beautiful batch to take a picture of.

Holiday Ornaments

Christmas Arts and Crafts

I made gingerbread man decorations. They are primarily made as ornaments,

but I think they would look cute strung up like a garland also.

I made the gingerbread and added

jolly ranchers in the centers to look like stained glass.

As a senior in school one of the classes we have to take is a seminar class that provides us the syllabus and means to conduct our own art exhibition.

As a class of 16 we worked together to musically harmonize an art show with a great variety of work and artist. We each got to put pieces of work in the show that represents us as seniors at Utah Valley University.

I got my own wall to display my work.



By each of our works we had our picture, artist statement, and signature.

[ The girl who printed out all the artist statements read my last name off my email. I have been to lazy to change it, but I need too!]

Next to our walls we were given a pedestal to out business cards, Cd's, and printouts of any kind based on your work for guessed to take. I created cards that had a cropped image of my work and a sentence from my artist statement.

With the class there is a budget, a girl in our class has a friend who caters sushi.

We even had a world renowned harpist play at the reception.It was a great experience! I had a lot of fun and have learned much. This semester has been a great challenge to me and my work. I have grown so much and accomplished much too. Having a show like this has made me feel more confident that what

I have passion for is worth all the had work.

"the good juice is worth the squeeze"

I have to thank everyone for you love and support! Especially Jordan, his love and support has made this semester seem too easy! and of course my parents who have always shown me to push through and shower me with their love and support!

I love you all and thank you greatly!

We all know someone famous now!

Jordan is Famous!!!!

He volunteered at work to hand out boxes of thanksgiving meals in them.

He made the front page of our local newspaper; the Daily Herald.

At church two different people gave Jordan their front page and others reported to him about it!

I am just so proud of him and his great heart!

This is the picture and the article of the newspaper; November 25th 2009

PROVO -- Think the line at the grocery store this weekend was bad? Smith's, Macey's and Fresh Market were nowhere near as busy as the food bank.
On Tuesday, cars lined up for half a block to turn into Community Action, only to circle the frenzied parking lot in a vain attempt to find an empty space. Two spaces were taken up by a large white trailer, filled to the edge with white boxes, each containing a turkey and wishing the recipient a happy Thanksgiving from APX Alarms. Everyone left with one. Many also grabbed a pumpkin or two from crates outside the building.
Inside, the crowd was more organized, but every seat in the lobby was taken. There was an intake line with a dozen people in it and another line of people who had gone through the process and were waiting for food. Some looked uncomfortable being there. Some were familiar with the process. Most seemed resigned to waiting much longer than they'd expected to.
"I've never seen it this busy, and I've been coming here for years," said Donna Canterberry of Provo.
She was one of hundreds of down-and-out Utah County residents who needed a little Thanksgiving cheer just two days before the holiday. Hundreds of people showed up throughout the day for help, said food bank director Jim Thomas. All of the cars in the parking lot and lining the street were there to pick food up. Many waited for a couple of hours before leaving with a full car.
"Usually it's one-tenth of that," he said. "Usually we can get people in and out pretty quickly."
This week traditionally is more busy than normal, but this year has brought even more clients to the food bank as people struggled in a bad economy, so the explosion of need wasn't much of a surprise. So far they have enough food, Thomas said, though the 800 turkeys APX donated was helping quite a bit.
Every one of them will be in someone's oven come Thursday morning; the need in the valley is that great, he said. People are coming for help who have never come before.
"We keep hearing about people that are newly unemployed and they just have never had to come ask for help, they don't want to do it, they're selling everything they own," he said.
Lucia Navas of Orem was laid off from her job a few months ago, her husband doesn't work regularly and they have four daughters at home. They've come to the food bank a couple of times and were there Tuesday to get ready for Thanksgiving. Navas was having trouble finding another job because many of the people looking for the same work were younger, more experienced and more educated than she was.
"There's a lot, but there's a lot of competitors also," she said.
Debra Leger of Orem walked away with a cart full of food items, including a turkey and an apple pie. Her husband works, and she works a couple of hours a week as a teacher's aide, but they couldn't get the money to stretch to cover all the bills.
"There's four of us in the house, and it's tight," she said.
She's been coming to the food bank every couple of weeks for the last year, and while it's not her family's only source of food, all the groceries she gets helps her family.
"If it wasn't for this place, we'd have ... " Leger said, then paused. "I don't know."
Community Action will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. today for donations and pickup, closed Thursday and open on Friday for donations only.

The mountain I just climbed!!!

These past couple of months I have been preparing my fine art portfolio.

There are few degrees that you can acquire in the fine arts department. The highest at UVU is a BFA (Bachelors of Fine Arts). Essentially you could just enroll in the school and take art class to get a BA or BS in the visual communications degree, but anythings above that you must submit a portfolio and be personal accepted by the school and faculty.

For me I love painting and fine arts and to really accent that in my artist career I decided to apply for the BFA program.

I had to take pictures of all my best artwork in the area I want to emphasis in.

I wanted to show you what I submitted.

ps. Thank you for all the support and love, it has been a strenuous, stressful and tiring!

A Grandfather’s Hat, oil on wood 12”x 18”

Colour I, acrylic, modeling paste, and Oil pastel on linen, 12”x 24”

Collage I, Oil Pastel on Linen, 6”x 10”

Colour III, acrylic, modeling paste, and oil pastel on linen, 12”x 24”

Untitled I, Oil Pastel on Linen, 6”x 8”

Light House, Oil on Canvas, 2.5’x 4’

Grounded, water media and oil pastel, 12”x 18”

Orange Juice, Acrylic, 18”x 24”

Cranes, Water media, 12”x 18”

Elephas maximus, Oil on canvas, 4’x 6’

Soldiers’ Tears, Oil on canvas, 4’x 4.5’

Colour IV, acrylic, modeling paste, and oil pastel on linen, 12”x 24”

Colour V, acrylic, modeling paste, and oil pastel on linen, 12”x 24”

Colour VI, acrylic, modeling paste, and oil pastel on linen, 12”x 24”

Contrast, Oil on Wood, 7”x 7”

Colour II, acrylic, modeling paste, and oil pastel on linen, 12”x 24”

Untitled II, Oil pastel on linen, 6”x 12”

Untitled III, Oil pastel on linen, 6”x 8”

Untitled IV, Oil pastel on Linen, 6”x 8”

I GOT ACCEPTED!!!

I'm so excited and relieved!

Artist Statement...

I build paintings. My paintings feel solid and built. The physical compositional configuration is the structural field on which sediments of paint and material are massed, initiating the growth of each piece. It is the vitality of growth and decay within each structure and the energies inherent in these processes that I try to embrace in my work.
Texture is the foremost component in my paintings. In performance with raw materials as my instrument I shape and manipulate to make a rustic sound. I paint layer upon layer with harsh movement, jagged edges, and bold colors; it is like geological strata with cracks and discordance. It represents the movement and lines of the earth, all the way down through the painting to the sturdy wood support. But each new layer, however furious, is always infected and colored by the underlying one. Nothing is ever used right from the tube or exactly how I found it. What I have done is a rather coarse and abstract but it will smell of the earth.
My inspirations come from nature and earth. I use natural materials that came from the earth. I like knowing that my work can be considered as making a full circle in life. As I grow mentally and emotionally; I learn what is most important to me and what lemons are worth the squeeze. I know that I have found my place in life, and now I can take what I have learned and morph it into my art and creations. Coming from southern California I learned that nothing stays the same and nothing is exactly what it seems. I lived seven minutes away from the Pacific Ocean; it could be warm sunny and cloudless above my house and once traveled to the coast it would turn to overcast gloomy and gray. Such as the layers I produce on the supports of either canvas or wood panels. One layer will start as golden and bright as the sun on a warm spring day but might change to a gloomy gray with hints and shadows of the sun bleeding through.

SORRY FOR THE LENGTH!!!

Art Show

This past week I was invited to present my art work

in an art show at the school.

Saturday was the opening reception, I got to hang my work

with about ten other seniors.

My work is very unique and non-objective (abstract).

I like mixing colors and using basic shapes,

from references of state and geological maps,

to form a more interesting surface and image.

Paining is layering layer upon layer…

it is like the geological strata with cracks and discordance's.

But each new layer, however furious, is always infected

and colored by the underlying one.

On these I painted with acrylic and molding paste on linen and canvas.

I use other material on top from more three dimension.

Topogtraphia 1

Topographia 2

I little crazy, but this is a new collection that I'm working on.

Just in case you were wondering, I make all the supports by hand.

So from start to complete finish it takes around two weeks.

It's not as easy as it might look.

Be-lated Happy Birthday!!!

My Mom just recently turned 50 years old.

Though she would never look like she 50 we still had to party Mitchell style!!!

My Dad and Sister wanted to surprise mom for the weekend.

It first started with my sister and I coming into town with out her knowing on Thurs,

and then a huge surprise party with everyone on sat!!!

It was a lot of fun, and it made it more fun when we are celebrating for a wonderful women!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Your fifty and fabulous!

Zucchini, Zucchini, Zucchini

So this summer we haven't been too successful with our garden except for one plant.

Our zucchini plant!

It's huge

We have actually had about four large zucchini, but I forgot to take a picture

before I cooked them.

This is the latest one we harvest.

I just recently made zucchini bread.

I didn't take a picture because it didn't visually look good, but it did taste great!

This past week I had a idea to try frying them. they turned out better then I thought.

I didn't have bread crumbs so I made some

bread crumbs from hamburger buns and Parmesan cheese

and fried them in vegetable oil.

YUM!!!

I told you I would never be good!

What can I say? I'm so terrible at this blogging thing!

I do have good intentions, but things get crazy and I start forgetting and put it off.

Unfortunately I have written this blog as another apology.

"I'm sorry!!"

The picture is just for fun. I have been having so technical difficulties.

My pictures have been giving me a hard time up-loading to my computer. It might take a little while longer.

In the mean time I wanted to ask if I should post pictures of events from July.

Events such as; Jordan's birthday, Las Vegas trip, etc.

Or should I just continue with the latest event and move on?

Let me know what you think.

Should I go back...or...Stay current

A blog for my blogs

I have to write an apologia for my mistake.

I accidentally posted my 4th of July pictures before the Owlz game.

OOPS!!! Sorry!