Undergrad, check!

Today I did something very new.
I walked across a great big stage in a large amount of blue fabric, some yellow cords and a square cap, surrounded by tons of students in similar attire.
I graduated!

I can't really believe that it's over—4 years, gone!  It was really a strange experience.  I can't say that I really grew emotional like I would have thought.  It was almost as though my brain mostly turned off and only allowed me to go through the motions.  When my name was called and I walked across the stage to shake the president's hand, I couldn't hear anything else—not even my family cheering!

It is a really weird feeling.  11(+) art shows later, but I finally made it. And I'M ALIVE!
I wish I could soak in that feeling, just spend a few moments to recognize how truly awesome it is that God took me through this, a few seconds to think over the excitement of what lays ahead, or smidgen of time to think back over the good times and the laughs...
But unfortunately ( or fortunately), I have a whole lot of packing / unpacking to do so that I can GO TO ITALY! woo

Something a little different...

Here is my latest show entry—I entered it into the end of semester show for the final show of my undergrad.
weird.

So this is the piece I offered a little "sneak peak" to a few weeks ago.  not my usual style or subject matter, but they asked for "conceptual", and this is what they got.  More creepy that I usually care to do—I feel like I have fallen into the typical category of "depressed art student", though I am far from it in actuality.

Just in case the "message" is not very clear, allow me to expand on my inspiration a little.  I've been talking with some of the girls that I mentor, and just some that I know closely, and have become more aware of the pain that girls inflict upon themselves in order to be accepted by society—not just anorexia, though that is a more well known issue.  Slowly, these girls kill themselves, hardly able to keep themselves "above water" (represented by the horizontal).  Thankfully, I do not know any girls who are in a position quite that bad, but I do know plenty about how society works against us and pushes girls (boys too, but we're talking my drawing of a girl right now...) to become the impossible "perfect".

The awesome thing is that God is in control—and He allows us to be vulnerable to Himself.  And in exposing what we are going through, the pain of what we have lived through—whatever it may be—we allow Him to come in and provide the necessary healing.

God is so good.  It's hard to grasp how nobody can be too "terrible", too "full of sin", too "unclean" for Him to reach—just look at Manasseh from 2 Kings 21!  He was described as the worst king to ever live, and he had "shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit..." (v.16).  Yet, when Manasseh turned to God at the end of his life, God forgave him, loved him and even blessed him—he did not bring the punishment that the people deserved while Manasseh was living.

Feedback is welcome and encouraged as always—I'm considering bringing the line down a little more and maybe allowing it to fade higher.  Thoughts?

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