Last Update. The very last....

What a great showcase. It's nice that so many students and teachers and parents show up in support, especially since it's just a once-a-year kind of thing. I feel an especially close sense of community in two classes within Lakeridge, and those are AP art and my French class. Moreso AP art than French. I'm going to miss this class so much come summer. It's been a great year so far.

HOGWARTS FOREVER (because we all know that's where I'm off to year after next). Obviously, in the words of the great Professor S. Snape.

Done

I am now, as of yesterday, officially done with my concentration! Well, technically that was last Friday, except that I wanted to do a new piece to replace a particularly crummy one I did at the beginning of the year. Here are my last two concentration pieces (both about the meaning of life): 

Any feedback is appreciated.

*also, please note the sarcasm in the parentheses of that third sentence* Turn to page 394, turn to page 394, in the words of the great Professor S. Snape. Two months and three weeks before HP comes out.

Still tomato red. Don't know what to say after that picture. mmmm...well, I spent most of today working on my second concentration piece. it's an acrylic, smaller than what I've done in the past. the smaller size is really quite nice. 11 by 14 inches. Going to go look for some more canvases that size. Still tomato red. I'd post pictures except that I'm using my grandma's computer. The other concentration piece is very different than what I'm used to doing. It's a pen and ink drawing with pastel over the top, and much more imaginative. Personally, I think it's a bit more interesting than many of my previous pieces. it might turn out a mess. we'll see. Someone's watching Merlin in the other room. My brother, if you can believe it. I can hear the theme music from all the way across the house. Who would have thought? Somewhat less tomato red. Recovering. Harry Potter comes out in three months! I'm about halfway through the third book right now. Rereading in preparation for the last movie. Harry and pals are all so sweet and innocent. HP is definately my comfort series. Face returned to completely normal color. Heart still beating somewhat faster than normal. Mortification mitigated.

Today I have a piano recital, which I'm not particularly excited about. The piece I have to play is both the fastest and longest piece I've ever played in my life, and my hands always start shaking whenever I get up on stage. In fact they're shaking now. I've got an hour and a half left before I have to go. Maybe I'll go do some art. I don't know. Or practice breathing exercises.

Stickwork

I was volunteering at the library yesterday, unloading bins and such, when this book called Stickwork by Patrick Dougherty came through. This guy makes sculptures and other structures out of sticks on a very large scale. The book had some pretty cool pictures. Anyways, I got really excited and started flipping madly through the pages. Well, then I thought the library ladies might start shooting me evil looks for not doing what I was supposed to be doing, so I put it down and sent it through check-in. Except then the lady at check-in picked it up and started flipping through the pages. Anyways, here are some images:


I gaze at my computer screen in awe.

And so ends spring break (suppress your disappointment)

ah, yes. brace yourselves for another grueling two and a half months of school. honestly, I don't think I've ever been so relieved with the arrival of spring break. so, as usual, at the beginning I had an entire mental list of things I was going to do to get myself organized. and, as usual, I completed about a twelth of them. that would be vacuuming, and completing homework. foremost, I wanted to clean out my room and my backpack,  which unfortunately gets quite heavy as it is weighed down by the accumulated weight of last semester's papers. when my room gets too messy, I can't think. anyways, I did just finish both my concentration pieces for this month, which is a great relief. I love our art class. I'll miss it come summer. Okay, here are the concentration pieces: (feedback would be greatly appreciated)

I struggled quite a bit with this top piece. Well, actually, I had quite a bit of fun. The rocks were all done with a palette knife, which gives nice texture--I just had a hard time making them look like rocks. I haven't done much palette knife work in the past. Maybe just a few spots here and there in some of my past paintings. It's a really different style than what I'm used to, but I absolutely love using the palette knife.

This was the first piece I finished, and throughout the entire time I worked on it, I felt like something just wasn't right. It wasn't until I was cleaning off my palette that I realized that I had put that one bush right smack in the center of the painting, vertically speaking. Maybe sometime I'll crop it. But right now, I'm sort of sick of looking at it.

HP coming up

Hmmm. What to write, what to write. Four months and two days until Harry Potter 7 comes out! Yeah!

Well, this week hasn't been all too exciting. Eat, sleep, do homework. Eat, sleep, do homework. Last night (Friday) my family and I watched this rather bad King Arthur movie. There were all these sappy falling-in-love scenes that were great for snickering at. Well, actually, I pretty much snicker at any falling-in-love scene. In general, I don't watch romantic comedies. They all seem the same.

Last concentration pieces

Hey everyone. Here are my last two February concentration pieces; I'd appreciate it if you could give me a little bit of feedback on them. As a reminder, my incredibly profound concentration is "people at the mercy of nature." Yeah, the plant type (don't snicker).



Does this look like me, out of curiosity? Everyone always says that my self-portraits don't look like me. Before I die, I'd like to create one that does. Anyways, first time I ever did a person in watercolor. It was nerve-wracking.

Oh, one last thing. This weekend, on Saturday night, I saw Castle in the Sky. Really sweet movie. Love Miyazaki's work. Well, it just so happens that the guy who played Luke Skywalker had a voice role in it. My dad can't stand Luke or any of the old Star Wars films because, in his words, Luke is too much of a "goody goody two-shoes." Now, in my humble opinion, no one knows the true meaning of "goody goody two-shoes" until one's read Oliver Twist. Oliver was enough to make even me nauseous. Honestly, no one is that good. NO ONE. Anyways, turns out that Luke Skywalker voices the role of Muska (best-guess spelling), who is like the ultimate evil guy. He does a good job of sounding evil, too. I just found that amusing, especially since I thought muska meant fly in Spanish. Though, according to my dad, it doesn't.

snow day

Yeah! Snow day! Now I'm off to do my math homework....

And I'm going to get a lot of art done! Except, I left my second concentration piece for this month at school yesterday, which I probably should of thought ahead about and brought it home. But I really didn't think we'd get a snow day. If someone sued the weatherman every time he was wrong about snow, the career wouldn't even exist. I saw the snow out my window at 5 this morning, and I thought, "Yeah! I bet we have a snow day!" But then I couldn't go back to sleep before my alarm went off at 6. I was too busy thinking about what I'd do with my snow day. Then, at 6 I went up and checked the school district website to see if school was closed, and the emergency weather alert page said "no information posted. operating as normal," and I maybe muttered a few curses beneath my breath (imperius ones, of course). So then, I naturally got ready to go to school, all the while wondering why school wasn't cancelled when their was more snow on the front lawn than there was that day off we had in November, and it was still snowing. Still is. Anyways, I finished my breakfast and then my mom came down and told me to go double check. Well, the internet said it couldn't display the webpage, so she checked her email and it had the announcement. Yeah! Snow day! Now I really am off to do my math homework.

*sigh* insert title here

Everything in my last post was true. I have an unfortunate habit of eating excessive amounts of Twizzlers. I somehow always manage to spill pasta on the floor (first time it was half the pot). And this weekend I am so excited because we have Monday off and I am going to get so much done! *please note the conviction with which I speak* Today, Saturday, I woke up at 7 and finished reading my book by 9. It was a very interesting historical fiction book set in India in WWII. Then, I fried my brain on math homework for 2 hours--which was sort of funny because it involved mostly algebra, which I like. Oh dreaded be the days of graphing. Afterwards, I practiced my piano and then went on a walk with my parents, and then went and did my volunteer shift at the library. But get this, I drove there and back. Not only did I freak my mom out, but myself as well. She had me try and back out of a parking space at the library after my shift was over. Well, I've never backed out of any space really except for empty church parking lot spaces surrounded by imaginary red convertibles. Usually, I'd take out both convertibles to either side of me, but I have had some success. Now, I didn't hit anything in the library parking lot. It's just that you're so focused on not trying to hit the car to the left of you, or any poor pedestrians that happen to be behind, that you forget about the car to the right of you, and that's an unfortunate business. Luckily, my mom was there to yell stop a few thousand times. So, moral of the story, driving is terrifying. Even when everything goes quite nicely, I still can't stop shaking for nearly 5 minutes afterwards. I drove my mom to Palisades after she pulled the car out of the library parking lot, and this nice employee there offered us cheese samples. When I took the toothpick, my hand was shaking so bad it reminded me of math class, where we learned about something called simple harmonic motion or something something oscillating motion. Can't remember what the spiffy name is. But that's what it reminded me of. It's terrible. Then I got back to my house, and did some college research on naviance and such, which pretty much brings us to now. Yes, that is my entire Saturday in all excruciating detail. Poor souls. You deserve a girl scout cookie for reading through all of this. Samoas are the best, in my humble opinion.

Dear Amy, You Will Not Procrastinate

Dear Amy,
This month, you will not procrastinate. You will write a 4 to 6 page paper about your life story without sarcasm. You will not spill pasta all over the kitchen floor. You will not eat all the Twizzlers while watching Harry Potter. You will clean out your backpack. You will study for the SAT and learn a bunch of smarty-pants words that no one really uses in normal conversation except to sound smart, which really bugs you, but you will learn them anyways because they're on the SAT and you want to get into a good college. Honestly, why do people utilize the word "utilize" when they can just say "use"? Efficiency, efficiency. Okay, I admit that there are some pretty good words in there. SOME. And you will not procrastinate in learning them. You will not procrastinate at all.

Yours truly,
yours truly

Anyways, thanks for all the feedback on my last two concentration pieces, for those that commented! I really like this online critique business. I feel like I can express my thoughts more completely. And it also allows for an extra work day in class.

Oh! Does anyone happen to be taking AP physics currently? I'm trying to decide which science class I want to take next year and I'm wondering what it's like. If anyone could share their thoughts, that would be great. Thanks!

Done! Sort of....

J'ai fini! Just finished the last of January's concentration pieces! I'm not sure if we're supposed to post them on our blog right now for that online critique--guess I should bring them in tomorrow anyways. I can't say that I was super pleased with how this month's pieces turned out. but for the artist, it's the process that counts, right? right? ah, well. One of them is a bit of a stretch, I think, for my concentration. too busy. lacking interest. meh. ah well, I guess we learn most from our failures. I might work a little more on it later, to make it more like I imagined it. or accidentally ruin it trying to make it like I imagined it. anyways, here they are:

sorry about the upside-down one. not quite sure how to get the thing right side up. I'll go mess with it later.

As of last night, I have successfully given a title to every single piece of writing for my creative writing project! Triumph! Not that they're especially good, but still. I got it done. The entire thing is titled "Amy's Writing". Yes, wildly creative. Again, I take possession. It's just, I'm so bad with titling my artwork. It's embarassing, really.

Terrible with titles.

This weekend was going to be my super-productive, get-everything-for-school-done-before-finals weekend. Finish my first acrylic concentration piece. Get a story map for Huck Finn going. And what have I done? Stare at my concentration piece. Walk down to George Rogers park and gaze all googly-eyed at the waterfall along the way (yes, with all the rain it really is that cool). Oh, and something rather interesting happened yesterday. I was moving some finished works--acrylic ones--around the house and I took my Harry Potter one into the family room. Where the sky is normally darker blue on the piece, the paint looked a lavender color. So naturally, I freaked out and asked if anyone else saw obvious purple. They did. Then I took it into my room, and it didn't look purple at all. It's  really odd what lighting can do to a painting.

National portfolio day this weekend....

So. National portfolio day is coming up on Sunday and I have to admit that I'm actually really nervous about going around and talking about my work. Does anyone know if we can bring sketchbooks? Speaking of which, my sketchbook sets off the library beeper (or whatever you call it). Does this happen to anyone else? I wonder what it is....