3 days until school starts....

Well, Happy Holidays everyone! This winter break, I decided to spread the holiday cheer by making themed sugar cookies. And not just any sugar cookies, mind you. Human-shaped cookies. Where might this be leading, you ask? Well...(and here I take a moment to cackle)....to none other than Harry Potter character cookies! Actually, I managed to rip off no less than 4 major pop culture franchises in less than two hours with these cookies. And no, the Twilight series is not part of that esteemed group of 4. Anyways, I had quite a lot of fun making them--even if my cookie decorating skills make it a little difficult to tell who's who. It was, I believe, the extent of my holiday "food preparation" experience.





up close of voldemort and umbridge (wearing the horcrux)



Snape is right below Voldemort (my favorite) and Harry and Ron are right next to him. They're both wearing one of Mrs. Weasley's sweaters. Right next to Ron is Ginny wearing the Hogwarts uniform, which wasn't going to be Ginny until I messed the uniform up. There are also three cookies not pictured here, which is no matter because my brother ate one of them and the heads broke off of the two others.

Anyways, aside from cookies, my family just got back from Arizona this afternoon. I took some concentration/ watercolor stuff down with me hoping to finish a piece...but it didn't happen. I made progress, but I still have quite a bit to do. Actually, the first time I tried to start drawing, something rather horrific happened. I was in Las Vegas visiting my aunt and cousin, and we were driving down to Flagstaff, Arizona that day. Anyways, I brought my art stuff outside and was trying to find a dry spot to set it down and go get something else. Well, the only dry spot happened to be a pile of fake wood sitting near the pool. Out of nowhere, this big gust of wind came up and blew my watercolor paper pad open and my "mandrake heart" piece into the pool, along with the picture I was using as a model. Honestly, it was like watching a nightmare. So, of course, I jumped in after it. Thank goodness the steps at the shallow end protruded out farther than in most pools. Really, I only got my jeans wet up to my knees because it hadn't quite got to the deep end (I waded out on the steps). And thank goodness that it was watercolor paper. The regular printer paper that I was using for the model picture was destroyed, but it didn't really matter that much. It was all very exciting.

Lovely photos....

My lovely grandma, my sponsor. She's a watercolor artist, but has done loads of other things including charcoal and pastel. The picture in the background is one of her pieces. Anyways, I owe a great deal to her for her help. She is largely responsible for the art supplies I have accumulated at home and is always happy to critique what I've been working on. When she asks, I'll critique her work. It's a great kind of relationship. We used to paint together every Friday afternoon, and still do somewhat sporadically. Again, I owe her a lot for her support.

New WOA

I've been out taking pictures for the new WOA today, thanks to my dad. Anyways, we were up near Mt. Hood and I was taking a picture of this really old, caved in house when an elderly man with a rifle walked out of the newer house on the property and across the yard. He had this dog that followed him around--but it was the rifle that creeped me out. Honestly. How many people walk around their property with rifles? Personally, I don't think that I look particularly menacing. Anyways, I was about ready to run the opposite direction. When he came out, he wasn't coming towards us--just walking across the yard. But when he came back into view we asked him if he was okay with us taking pictures. He said yeah...scared me, though.

On another note, I haven't been feeling too well today. Everyone around me has been getting sick, and I feel like I usually do the day before I get hit with a cold. I'm sort of nervous, because I don't want to miss any more school. I've already got like four or five absences this year. Usually, I get mildly sick at the beginning of the year and then really sick in February or March. But we'll see.

Concentrations and things....

So. Let's start off by saying that I had a creepy dream last night. Well, more odd than creepy. Snape was in it, which was kind of cool. But then it devolved into me crawling through these dark catacombs with a bunch of drop-offs in the middle of the floor (with odd, flying mermaid-liking creatures living in them). And then a giant amoeba made out of mustard came inching down the tunnel, and I woke up. This was one of the oddest dreams I have ever, EVER, had. Regardless, I've dreamed about Harry Potter and its particular details every night this week, with I think, the exception of Thursday night. Here we have the lake challenge represented from the Triwizard Tournament, and the Sorting Hat. I don't know why the Sorting Hat reminds me of a giant amoeba made out of mustard--I think it must be something from some video game my brother used to play--but either way, this streak of Harry Potter dreams is odd. I've ranted so much about Harry Potter on this blog that I'm finally starting to feel okay with the fact that another one isn't due out until July. Just calmer, and little less obsessed. But apparently, my subconscious has different ideas. Anyways, just wanted to note that I probably won't be ranting about Harry Potter too much anymore until, say, June for those who might question such a thing.

As for concentrations, I have ideas for the next four concentration pieces and am hoping to start painting on Monday! It sort of depends on how crazy tomorrow is homework-wise, but I'm going to try to get a lot done today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Around the holidays, I always get really in the mood for movies like Harry Potter (and want to go to Hogwarts even more badly). Well, basically I'm always in the mood for Harry Potter, but even more so October through early February. Hogwarts for me is always this nice cozy castle surrounded by old growth forests and lots of good food and slightly crazy/eccentric people. It's the same for a lot of people. Unlike in the HP7 movie poster, Hogwarts NEVER gets trashed by Death Eaters. Its teachers never die. McGonagall gets to teach transfiguration forever. And yes, even though Voldemort threatens everyone inside it with death, it's still a semi-paradise. Will my obsession with Hogwarts last forever? Probably. Aunt Petunia's jealousy (over Lilly) lasted a nice long time. Of course, that's from the perspective of a slightly...hmmm...over-excited, indecisive, person basking in the glow of such a recent movie release. I am a little embarassed to admit that I saw HP7 for the third time last night. Three times, I felt, would be a little much even for me. But actually, I enjoyed it the third time the most. For a variety of reasons. One, I wasn't either starving or deliriously tired. Two, I actually started to accept that HP could be HP without Hogwarts. Three, I got over the sadder aspects (gone are the happy innocent days at Hogwarts) and was able to appreciate some of its more quirky "wizarding-world" scenes that accounted for so much of my fascination early on. And lastly, I wasn't the only one in the theater to yell at Snape's first appearance. My friend sitting next to me--as big a Snape fan as I am--nearly mauled me in her excitement. Anyways, there's this great line about his robes billowing out behind him, like they always do, in the sixth book. It reminded me exactly of that first Malfoy manor scene, as he climbs the staircase. Quite dramatic. Yes, I reread a good portion of the ending of the sixth book this morning (surprise, surprise). I was trying to figure out why in the world Ms. Rowling decided to name it "and the Half-Blood Prince". But the exciting conclusion to that story--after we know who it is, of course--is that Snape's witch mother married a muggle. Shocking. Just like Voldemort's. So, I have a couple possible theories:
1. She was trying to let the reader know that Snape is more important than they previously imagined by devoting the title to him. Even though the potions book, I believe, doesn't do much to further the plot besides introducing Snape as the Half-Blood Prince. And we never hear about it again.
2. She wants to draw attention to half-blood Snape and his early involvement in helping Voldemort form the "perfect pure-blood society" so-advertised in HP7, then in so-doing bring attention to Voldemort's identical situation and thus the hypocritical/ironic status of their work. Though really, Voldemort uses it as a facade for his rise to absolute power.

If you have more theories, please enlighten me. And my family. They watched the sixth movie last night without me, even though the night before my dad asked me not to watch it because he was going to bed and wanted to see it too. Yes. I know. What is this horror? And then they had the nerve to bombard me with plot questions, such as the one I posed to vous (respectful/you plural in French), which I happily tried to answer. Anyways, so...theories. That would be good. Also, a little peeved that Bill was left out of the sixth movie and Peeves for all of them. I really like Bill. I don't know why. Maybe it's just the way he carries himself, and his good nature even though he's been mutilated by a werewolf. Bill, and, of course, Fred and George. I couldn't help but snicker loudly at that part with Ginny, where George walks into the kitchen with the toothbrush sticking out of his bandages. Ginny is so...obnoxious. I had a dream, about a week ago, where I was at Hogwarts. The classroom looked like a normal Lakeridge classroom, except that Daniel Radcliffe was sitting right next to me and the class was having a competition to see who looked the most like a Harry Potter character. Obviously, the entire class voted for him...except for him, who voted for me. It was a pretty good dream, even though he thought I looked like Ginny. And then an abnormally large spider started spinning glowing silver webs all over the school grounds and my dream went downhill from there. I just thought it was cool that I was at Hogwarts. Anyways, on to art.

So, yesterday, I got most of the primary painting done on my concentration piece and a good portion of the tree trunk finalized. Never before have I seriously applied paint with a palette knife, nor done a tree in acrylic, but it was quite fun. Hopefully everyone else will think it looks like bark. Oh, but using a palette knife was so much fun.

On the Harry Potter premiere (naturally)

Surprise, surprise. This premiere for me was up there with Christmas. Honestly, last week went by so fast that it felt like a holiday. I'm so sad that there's only one premiere left to attend. This HP7 one was my first, and I absolutely loved it. I actually sort of felt bad that I didn't have more of a costume, because so many people were decked out. Well, actually, I did have more of a costume but no one would have noticed because I was wearing my big fluffy grey sweater and cowering under a drippy umbrella, ski jacket, and big pile of blankets the entire time. The way my group and I were camped out, I could really only hold my umbrella with my feet, so all this freezing cold water pooled in my shoes and soaked my socks (neither of which were dry the next day). I didn't stop shivering the entire time, but everything was completely worth it. Special thanks to everyone who brought extra blankets and Bridgeport for its last, broken umbrella. Anyways, it was really fun to be around other huge Harry Potter fans--people that would go all out with their costume and then run around having random duels with other people on the sidewalk. Even Voldemort walked past once, which was sort of creepy because he walked really slow and stared at you the entire time. When we got inside the movie theater, he was the one helping with trivia. When he announced the second question for the grand prize (the first nobody knew), I was very pleased to realize that I knew the answer, because I had been practicing the line for weeks. It was, What page number does Professor Snape say to turn to in his Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson in the third movie? Or something of the sort. Page 394. I love Snape. He's my favorite character (I've probably rambled on about this before), and he has a cool voice, so it's fun to try to mimic what he says. I'm so excited for the second movie, when so much time is devoted to him. Anyways, the movie as a whole was actually pretty sad. For me the beginnning with Hermione was the saddest, and the end was too but I've never really liked Dobby all that much.

On a different note, I was thinking a little more about concentrations and thought that next year, it might be kind of fun to do something around commercial transportation. The Harry Potter premiere was sort of conveniently timed with the new WOA, too.



Me in front of the Snape cardboard pillar




The imax people got to wait inside, the 12:05 people got to wait on the sidewalk nearest the theater, and the 12:15 people got to wait in the middle of the street. Would it have been worth paying an extra 7 dollars to wait inside? Absolutely not.



So many people were oblivious as to why everyone was lining up. We got asked by at least five people, told them Harry Potter,  and then started seriously considering saying "Tangled"



Upcoming WOA...hmmmm

So I guess my concentration is going to center around humans trapped in nature. It sounds so different from what I originally said I was going to do, but it actually encompasses quite a few of my previous ideas. As for the WOA....having a hard time deciding. I keep trying to say, "Okay, this is what I'm going to do," with absolute conviction, but my idea changes every day. And the medium. Acrylic is really tempting, but takes me a crazy long time to do. Hmmmm.

Harry Potter comes out in less than two weeks! Yes!!!!! In French class today, my teacher suggested making some group presentation due on that Friday and immediately everyone exclaimed "Harry Potter!" and proceeded to tell her that that might not be such a good due date. I think she was a little surprised at the mass outcry, but....I am so proud of my French class.

The aftermath of Halloween....

Well, everybody looked dead on Monday morning. I certainly felt tired. It would be nice if they all gave us a day off after Halloween...yeah, wishful thinking. Anyways, hope everyone had a good one. I dressed up as George Weasley, ran around the house labeling all the rooms as parts of Hogwarts. The downstair's bathroom officially became the girl's bathroom on the first floor, or wherever it is. Moaning Myrtle's haunt. I drew a quick picture of her and stuck it on the wall, along with a plastic snake. Then I wrapped a smaller snake around the faucet, just to prove my point (the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets). Today, my grandma told me that these snakes were quite effective. Apparently, the larger snake fell off the wall and freaked out my aunt. Oops. Anyways, upstairs became the third floor corridor on the right hand side, off-limits to anyone who does not wish to suffer a most painful death. My room became Dumbledore's office (which, conveniently, you need a password to enter). Sherbert lemon? No. So, I guess some of the signs were sort of cheesy. But I had a lot of fun making them, all in tribute to the series' impending end. Can't believe the next one is coming out in less than two weeks! So excited! But at the same time, a little sad. A good amount of fun is in the waiting. So excited, though. I tried to carve my pumpkin with the Hogwarts emblem this year, to go along with my decorating theme. Hence, the pictures at the top.

*Rejoicing*

Okay, so the longest post of my life was not entirely lost after all! I managed to find it saved in drafts under the edit option on the dashboard, and it published the second time. That's the blog with the Happy Halloween heading. I think it really is the longest post I've done yet. Anyways, if your blog ever gets deleted...there is hope yet.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone! Last week was sort of a big week in terms of school--lots of tests, projects, and essays due. So, I guess it was sort of hard for me to get in the Halloween mood. But now that it's Sunday....I'm excited. At this point, I'm dressing up as George Weasley. Not for trick-or-treating, but my mom said that I can't decorate the house as Hogwarts if I don't dress up as a Harry Potter character, so I figured this might be a good chance to take my HP7 costume for a test run. George Weasley is the only prominent Weasley character (red hair =  must be Weasley) that doesn't either get married or die. I nearly cried when Fred died. And I didn't want to be Ginny, because she (and her relationship with Harry) bugs me. At the end of the series, I somehow couldn't imagine him getting married and having kids (with wildly creative names, I might add). I imagined him going back to Hogwarts and teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Anyways, that's the deal. I believe I shall dress up for Halloween for many years to come.

On hat projects:
I loved seeing what everyone came up with! Personally, I thought that it was a great project...so much fun. Congrats to everyone.

On concentrations:
So, as of this point, I would sort of like to do mine (and I think I might have mentioned this in an earlier blog) on hidden faces as a puzzle. Not at all like that one concentration we saw while scoring. More like the face in the teacup I did over the summer. Or, if that doesn't work, confusion, maybe? If anyone has feedback, it would be really, really appreciated. Thanks!

More on HP:
So, a couple days ago I took one of those personality quizzes on facebook just for fun. It was "What Harry Potter Character Are You?" I got Snape. This made me sort of happy, because he is my favorite HP character next to McGonagall. Why? a) his tragic love story is rather touching; and b)all the nasty things he says to Harry I find amusing. Plus, in the movies he has a cool voice. I spent a whole summer two years ago trying to imitate it. Anyways, then I took another personality quiz. I was reading through the description, when I came to the words "You are not a nerdy person." I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. When I told my friends about it the next day, they snorted, cracked up, and told me "Congratulations. You managed to cheat the system." Oh, my.

You have got to be kidding me. I just spent an hour writing the longest post of my life, and then when I tried to publish it an error message popped up. "We are sorry for any inconvenience," it said. When I hit the back arrow to try to return to my post and attempt to publish it a second time, the post was blank. It was a rather upbeat post, I might add. First thing I did when I woke up today: clean up cat puke in the dining room.

Self-portraits/spiders/Harry Potter

For the last few minutes, I've been searching for spider pictures online. If I come into class tomorrow looking like death, it will be because I had spider nightmares all last night. I could definitely not handle a concentration on such a thing. At this point, very few things will get me over such a fear.

In response to Zoe's comment on my last blog, what I described referred to a Harry Potter reference in my first blog. It also took me six tissues to clean up the spider, contrary to what I said earlier. I accidentally smashed the spider to smithereens, so their was some...ah...dust to clean up.

Finished my hat project, by the way. It's hiding in the depths of my closet where my cat can't get to it (nor anyone else). At this point, I'm rather paranoid that something will happen to it. My self-portrait, on the other hand....it hasn't really been getting anywhere for the past week. I'm really nervous for the critique tomorrow, because I'm not happy with it and everything's way out of proportion. Up close, it's not so noticeable. But far back...and I'm cringing. Going to make some last minute adjustments, but most of the stuff that drives me crazy isn't really fixable....

Bleck....

Today I worked up enough courage to clean the spider off Hawaii's Best Spooky Tales 3. It required 3 tissues and a great mastery of my gag reflexes. Anyways, now that I can pick up the book, the big table I do my art on is looking spiffy clean and ready for my hat project! Which is where I'm headed next....

Well hello....

Well hello everyone. So I am experiencing a bit of a predicament...with my self-portrait project. All of the proportions are way off! My head is bigger than everything else and my arm looks puny. It's incredibly annoying. Now I'm not really sure what to do. I'm tempted to take an exacto knife to it and cut out the arm, move it over just a smidge. But that sort of reads like disaster....When I went into this project, I was determined to do a self-portrait that actually looked like me. Thwarted again. It is my goal, before I die, to do such a thing. Anyways, I've been sort of disappointed with the way my last few projects turned out. They've all had this "If only I had done this..." air about them. But alas, perhaps the hat project will turn out okay (that, my friends, is hope).

And now onto Harry Potter. For anybody who hasn't already predicted this, there will be mention of Harry Potter in every one of my blogs up until the movie premiere. And then probably throughout the rest of the year. Anyways, I was writing an essay for English last night on transcendentalist ideals and trying not to be sarcastic when I noticed something rather odd. As I was proof reading the paper, all of the h's and p's and r's suddenly ran together, and I was reading Harry Potter over and over again. Hurry became Harry. No exaggeration. Can't say I liked "Into the Wild" very much, but hey, kudos to those that did. By the way, I went searching for pirate/Harry Potter garb today. I've got a red and gold tie sitting right next to the computer at this very moment. My dad never wears it anyway. He despises ties. For any major hp fan out there, tickets went on sale Tuesday afternoon at Bridgeport! So many people are going to be zombies on Friday....

P.S. Fleur! Read the books! Heheheh.

To start things off...

So, I have to write a poem concerning chaos for creative writing. Chaos is me trying to write a poem. And also my brain when I don't clean my room every week (white carpet + black cats = lots of vacuuming). All the little scraps of photos I used to make my family portrait are shoved under the bed. I've got a bin of markers sitting on top of a stack of textbooks, and on top of that, the styrofoam head for the hat project. Cluttering my desk, I've got a torn up old schedule with thumbnail sketches on the back, an old book with a handful of pages spilling out, a packet of sticky notes, a French-English dictionary, a stack of notepaper, a coffee cup full of pencils, toothbrush and toothpaste for my cat (apparently he's got the beginnings of gum disease), and a stinky pre-calc book. It is somewhat chaotic.

Along the semi-same lines, there's my self-portrait project. Now, for the poor souls that I tried to explain it to, I shall try and clarify here. Two nights ago, my brother affectionately called me a germophobe. I don't know why he should think it a cutting insult, but that's what he tried to make it...so I laughed. It's true. Among family and certain friends, the common perception is just that. I don't think straight if I let, say, my room go unorganized for too long. At school, I imagine the germs floating through the air and squirming on my fingertips after touching a computer keyboard. Which is why I tend to wash my hands a lot. Originally, that was what I intended to do my self-portrait around. But, because I wrote about spiders in my blog, the "common perception" shifted. Actually, the way my portrait is turning out doesn't fit exactly with the first idea, so the spider one is tempting. It's the one that's gotten the most pressure, though part of that, I think, is that I didn't really explain to people what I was going to do before I started. Not well, anyways. The other common perception is "Harry Potter fanatic", but I knew that wasn't what I wanted to do. I guess we'll see what happens this week. Good luck to everyone!

one big happy family cont....

So...I crumbled. Running around the house and taking pictures "unawares" was just too tempting. After explaining to my family that it was for an art project, they were a bit more receptive, but not particularly thrilled. Even my brother let me get one or two including his face--never mind that he looks annoyed--and a few others that feature his hand. The latter, I have to say, is my favorite. He despises getting his picture taken, and in most of our family photos he is either nonexistent or making a really pretty face. This time, it was my mom making the pretty faces. When I entered the kitchen with my camera, she proceeded to shake her spice jars at me and grimace. I am reminded of Snape from the fourth Harry Potter movie. She then turns away and pretends to ignore me. But never fear, I got some pictures. Then, after dinner, my dad and I were heatedly discussing United States foreign policy during the Cold War (yes, Howard Zinn) and I sort of wish that I had gotten a picture because it's one of his favorite things to talk about. As for the rest of my family, I tracked down our black cat Spike flaunting his disdain in the yard and Cocoa Poof (our other cat) drooling in the linen closet. It's disgusting. I still want to get them all together for a big group picture, but Poofy is just too much of a coward to come out from under the bed. As a side note, I still have not watched Harry Potter 5. Perhaps it is knawing away at my sanity--the good majority of which is counting down the days until November 19.

one big happy family...

Lately, I've been having a lot of trouble coming up with something for the family portrait project. I keep thinking that it would be kind of fun to get out my camera early in the morning (like 6:30) and run around the house, taking pictures of my family unawares. But then, that would be cruel. At 6:30 in the morning, my dad would either be reading the newspaper or at work, I would be eating breakfast, and my brother would be sleeping (Waluga schedule change). My mom would be making coffee all zombie-like. You can hardly ask her something and get a coherent answer before she's had her coffee. Plus, she would never EVER let me take a picture of her in her pajamas, unless, of course, it was "unawares". And that would be mean.

On a completely unrelated note, every night last week my brother watched a different Harry Potter movie. I guess he's preparing for the seventh one or something, but his marathon is killing me. I walked in on the best part of the fifth book in movie form and didn't even remember it. I thought that they had cut it out or something. Anyways, I was suddenly struck with an urge to dress everybody up in Harry Potter hats and then take a photo. It was really, really tempting. But then I decided I was the only one in the family that obsessed, so I didn't. My dad hasn't even read the books. I believe that one day I shall sneak it into his luggage as he heads up to work so that he'll be stuck with it until Friday. Oh cruel, cruel thoughts.

Book Projects

I'm really excited to see what everyone did for their book projects! I wasn't there on Friday because of some stupid cold, so I'm hoping that I might still get to see them on Tuesday...maybe. Anyways, while trying to work through "Twelve Basic Functions" pre-calc homework on Thursday, I came up with an idea for the self-portrait project. Inspired by kleenex. I also realized that my summer driver's ed instructor looked kind of like an older version of Luke Skywalker. Call me crazy but it was really, really, odd.

So the morning after I wrote that thing about the spiders, I woke up and there was one on the ceiling, directly over my head. Coincidence? I wonder....

First post!

So, the other day I opened up my sketchbook just to scroll through last year's images, and one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my life came crawling out. I am terrified of spiders. Every time I watch the second Harry Potter movie (aka last night), I cringe at the spider part. Not the basilisk.The spider. Anyways, this one was ugly and black like a miniature Aragog, and now it's hiding under the table where I do my art. On top of that same table, there's an equally large Aragog rotting under Hawaii's Best Spooky Tales #3. It's been there since the Fourth of July. I've been thinking of moving it, except, every time I lift up the book, another leg falls off. All the more reason to act, I guess. And what's more, I felt bad smooshing it.

A little more recently, I discovered a daddy long-lengs on my head. When I flicked it off, it disappeared, then turned up on my backpack. Last year, in Art 3-4, I was flipping through some old magazines and found a spider stuck between the pages. Freshman year in Art 1 we were doing something that resembled the life drawing set-up a bit and a spider crawled right across the board I was sketching on. I find all this rather odd. What is it with spiders and art? Admittedly, I used to believe that spiders were conspiring against me. That they held little Aragog conventions and plotted foul deeds. Is this a sign? It tells me that I need to get going on my sketchbook again--I mean, I was sketching this summer, but mostly on random scraps of paper that I found lying around. Hmmm....

A bit more on-topic, I had an idea for a concentration: hidden faces. I think it could be pretty fun.