Mid-Spring ’12…

Spring Break is ending today and thus begins the FAST slide into the last 8 weeks/so of Spring’12!!  YIKES!!

This semester has been extremely different.  I got a new job about a month ago, working at the TTU Landmark Gallery as a student assistant.    Hoping that it will help my networking abilities and give me some more information about art shows.  I submitted 3 of my pieces for a juried art exhibition and ”Linear Garden” got in!!  So, I’ll have my first art exhibition 3/24 and the possibility to win prize $$.  I was also notified last week that I received a $2000 scholarship for next year!!  WooHOO!!  Thanks God!!  I applied over the Christmas break and kinda forgot about it. 

Class Update~~

Spanish:  FUN!!  Learning more verb tenses and its kinda blowin’ my mind, but I’m trying.  We attempt to speak English the entire class period, so we can absorb it better, which seems to work alright for me.  Don’t speak English or you’ll have to “bailar la macarena”!!  Luckily, I haven’t been caught…yet.    The family traveled to Cancun, Mexico for a friend’s wedding at the first of February, so I got to try out my speaking & did pretty good.  Got many compliments from the staff!!    Now, I wanna travel the world!!

Art History III:  Hitting modern art now…  I don’t get some of it, but its interesting anyway.  Seems that modern artists are REALLY angsty and seem to relish their shortcomings & capitilize on them.  There’s this idea that painting like a child/mad man/”primitive” is more authentic…weird.

Oil Painting:  LOVE it!!  Never oil painted before & I’m really enjoying it.  I like the ability to paint over mistakes and correct w/o having to start over from the beginning.  About to start a huge(42″x42″) painting of pork kabobs, so we’ll see how it turns out.

Acrylic/Watercolor Painting:  What?!?!  What happened to intro to handbuilding??  It got cancelled due to low enrollment.  So, I double-blocked painting.    LOVE watercolor.  Acrylics are an aquired taste.  Keep trying to paint w/acrylics w/washes, etc. instead of thick, impasto strokes.  {sigh}  I’m still trying to improve.

No summer school on the horizon, but I think a break is in order.  Already planning for next Fall’s classes.  Getcha updated after finals in May!!

PS!!  Forgot to mention…you can check out my portfolio at http://www.behance.net/coatclosetdesigns.  Been uploading projects there and I need to get more done.  More work over the summer.

Sophomore year…Pt. 1

Yep!!  I’m a sophomore!!    Its based on my credit hours(10 are Spanish, so I guess, I’m technically a freshman. IDK.).   

Spring ’11 finished up nicely~passed ALL of my classes(math, too!!) & had a 4.0.  I wasn’t able to do summer school after all due to fundage issues, but that’s ok.  I was pretty upset about for awhile, I’ll admit. 

Summer was ok.  It was filled w/getting the boys to their various camps, working the movie job, searching for a PT job and dealing w/a pretty serious bout of depression.  I don’t share that lightly~sometimes its just better to be honest than to cover things up.  Did ALOT of praying over the summer for God to take care of us and HE hasn’t given up on us.

Fall’11 began with me not feeling very confident/excited about school or much of anything.  Depression & lingering hurts kept that joy from me.  Prayer has been fairly constant this semester, which is good.    The depression part hasn’t fully gone away & I’m still dealing with it from time to time.  Prayers asking for friends at school were answered(WooHOO!!).  Made quite a few friends in my Design & Art History classes which made school less lonely this semester.

Design II:  This was an intro to 3D design & I REALLY enjoyed it.  Our 1st instructor was lots of fun, but he had to stop teaching(not sure exactly why), so we got a 2nd instructor mid-semester.  She was ok…she usually teaches jewerly/metal smithing classes.  Most of the other kids didn’t really dig her.  Oh well.  We made LOTS of sculptures and I had a blast!!  I’ll get pix up eventually-still need to post stuff from last year.

Biology of Animals:  HARD.  Wow!!  This was a difficult class for 2 reasons, 1) lots of Bio vocab that I had no idea about & it was fast paced 2) the Evolution theory shoved down my throat.  I sat in many a lecture & lab, shaking my head at some of the stuff they told us.  1 celled organisms accidentally evolved through mistakes into humans….RI-ght.  Pul-eeze!!  I made it through and think I should pass it w/a high C or low B.

Art History II:  FUN!!  Discussed art from the Renaissance(1500) to 1900.  Learned lots of backstory for the artists and the art itself.  Our instructor was fun, if not a bit absentminded.  I emailed him WAY too much to remind him about quizzes, etc.  {shrug}  For the record, I dislike short answer & essay ?s…I’m never quite sure if I’m answering them right.

Technology in the Arts:  What can I say…. at times it was insulting & others I learned something new.  This class introduced us to a MAC & programs on one.  Most of the lessons(Word, Powerpoint, etc.) were boring and we weren’t really taught anything-had to watch videos to get the info.  }-(  Oh well.  I did learn how to add video/music to a PP, play w/Garageband, iMovie & iDVD.  This class stressed me out more than any other this semester.  Glad its over.

Gamma Beta Phi:  My 1st full semester to participate.  I think I did very well scheduling when to do my requirements & even brought the family to a ultimate frisbee social (football w/frisbees).  The boys ended up being the MVPs of the game!!  Told them I wouldn’t bring them anymore since they were showing me up.    Haven’t made alot of friends there, but making the socials was kinda hard w/work ‘n’ stuff.

Its almost Christmas break til mid-January when Spring’12 will begin.  Next semester will include:  Spanish, Art History III, Painting I:  Oil & Sculpture I:  Intro to Handbuilding (12hrs.), plus GBP stuff.

I think I’ll start praying now.

Holy cow!! Spring’s almost done!!

Yes, its true…my 1st spring semester @ TTU is almost finished.  We have 2 more weeks of regular classes then finals.  Dude!!

I have been extremely busy w/homework which would explain since my last post was in Feb.  Things are going well…have B’s in Design & Drawing(not happy w/that, but {shrug}).  Not sure what I’ve got in Poli Sci, but think its a high B.  Spanish is an A (woohoo!!) & math is holding at a C, though I’m not sure exactly how considering.

Think I’ve gotten the hang of what my design teacher wants and hopefully making better grades.  Made 2 projects that I’m extremely proud of…I’ll post pix when I get’em back & have time to upload’em.  He’s pretty cool (& the same age as me, so we have things in common).  Should be starting our final project on Monday, so I guess we’ll have the next 2 weeks to finish it up.

We started drawing nude models this past Tuesday in Drawing.  It was a bit uncomfortable for the first few minutes, but once I got started drawing, then I didn’t even notice anymore.  Our TA stood in Thursday b/c our model didn’t show and its quite a bit harder to draw the human body when clothes are in the way.  You can’t see exactly where parts fit together.  Hope I’ll get better at that.

Spanish is doing well.  I’ve discovered that I’m able to read & hear(understand someone speaking) much better than I can answer someone in Spanish on the spot.  I don’t have a wide vocab, so I take ALOT of time choosing verbs & tenses.  More practice is needed, I think.

Poli Sci…it’s cool.  We just listen to the lecture and take notes.  Kinda interesting analyzing how laws, etc. are made. 

Math…well…God’s helping me get through and given me an in-house tutor(Thanks, Andrew!!).    Made a 60 & a 78 on my 1st 2 tests- :-{  We took our 3rd test this week and I feel pretty good about it.  Still praying for a “B”, so I can move onto math courses that count for credit.

I registered for Summer & Fall courses this week too and it didn’t have half the problems that last semester did-YEA!!  My summer courses will be math, but they’re not in stone til I know my grade for the one I’m in.  May have to repeat the course I’m in.

Fall’s lineup will be fun, I think.  I’ll have Design II-MW mornings, Bio of Animals-TTH mornings, Art History II-TTH afternoons, Technology in Arts-F mornings, which will give me 13hrs.  Hoping for less stress than the 15hrs gave me this semester.

This semester has also given me some other opportunites.  I was invited to join Gamma Beta Phi (its an honor society), which I did, that has added some community service/social stuff to my calendar. 

    

I was also nominated by someone in the CVPA (College of Visual & Performing Arts) to be an ambassador for the college.  Wow!!  I would be attending/helping w/recuiting days, etc.  I submitted my application and have an interview on 5/3.  Hopefully, I’ll hear something soon afterwards.

Well, homework’s calling my name…gotta draw Andrew tonight for drawing class.  I hope he doesn’t get offended if it doesn’t look just right.    Talk again soon.

Spring semester has begun…

and its WAY different!!  All of my days start at 8am, which means I’m at school by 7:30am to make sure I’m on time for class.  I begin w/Design on Mon./Wed. and Drawing on Tues/Thurs., so I get my artsy fix daily.    MWF finish off w/my 2nd semester of remedial math & poli. sci., while T/TH ends w/Spanish-es muy bueno. 

Here are my 1st impressions:

Design I- almost 3hrs of art stuff;  get to use colors-YEA!!  instructor brought a radio/CD player, so now we can have tunes-HOORAY!!  It was too quiet some mornings.

Math II- well…its math.  instructor is from Camaroon & has a French accent-no prob w/any of that.  My only complaint is that he breezes through the stuff WAY TOO FAST and most of us are in remedial math for a reason.  Praying for God to get me through it.

Poli. Sci. II- not too bad;  similar to last semester-politics ‘n’ stuff;  the hour flies by;

Drawing II- its fun;  similar to Drawing I, but there seems to be a sense of more freedom w/our drawing;  get to scribble and gesture draw more and I like it!!

Spanish 2301- its only 2hrs/week, which surprised me;  most of our “quizzes” are online tutorials & we have to go to the language lab to practice pronunciation;  I did that last week-took me about an hour, got 100′s on all of them, but 1 and was extremely thirsty afterwards. 

I’m planning to get more involved w/the Tech Artist Society this semester and found out that the School of Art is having an art sell in March.  Don’t have any paintings/etc., but think I’ll try to get some of my xstitch charts (www.wendi4xstitch.wordpress.com) together and see how those go. 

1st semester is done!!

As you can see from the length of time between posts that I’ve been a bit busy. 

I’m officially done w/my 1st semester, passed all my finals & ended up w/straight A’s!!  Don’t think I’ve had that since elementary school.  I totally enjoyed ALL my classes and learned alot. 

Big Chair Picture Day

Yeah, I totally got on the big chair!!  Why not??  Gotta have some college stories to share w/the kids ‘n’ future grandkids. 

Here are my impressions of the 4 classes I took this semester:

Political Science~LOVED the way my professor taught!!  He was so unbiased that you had no idea how he felt personally.  Awesome.  The book chapters were LONG and took 4-E-VER to read, but pretty informative.

Remedial Math I~SO needed this class!!  At first, its was, like, “HUH??”, then “Oooohhhh!!  I remember that!!”  It was great review.  Had a grad student as our teacher and I think he did a great job.

Art History I~LOVED the history aspect!!  Learned about cultures & why they created the paintings/sculpture.  Could’ve done w/o the architecture info, but apparently its sticking b/c I recognize things on TV, etc. now.

Drawing I~Enjoyed this class b/c we got to draw…ALOT.  As of right now, I’m tired of drawing still lifes/baby carriages/self portraits in charcoal.  B&W is great for awhile, but, dang, I need to see some colors!!

Next semester is planned out, so here’s what I have to look forward to…Design I, Drawing II, Remedial Math 2, Political Sci. 2 and Spanish!!  I’ll be taking 15hrs and have a pretty decent time schedule…start out most of my week at 8am, except Fridays-YEA!!  Get to sleep in…if I want to.  Also, discovered that Art History 2 & 3 will be offered during the summer, so I’ll look into that later.

School has been an adjustment for the family.  I’m sure we all made mistakes the last 4mths w/time, understanding and whatever else.  There were some fights, ugly words shared and tears.  I think we started doing things on our own power/will and forgot to keep God in the forefront.  We must try harder to stay connected w/Him or we’ll have the same problems next semester.

Please pray for us and let’s let God do His thing.

Mid-Oct…DUDE!!

Its been over a month since I wrote last!!  See how busy I’ve been!! 

I’m REALLY enjoying Art History & Drawing and have found some people to chat with-YEA!!  Have a formal analysis/comparison due 11/18 for art history & we’re doing 2-pt perspective tomorrow in drawing.  Poli. Sci. is fine…wish the chapters didn’t take me 2-3hrs to read-SO boring & unending.  Math’s fine…been a VERY nice refresher course.  Jacob & Connor came to math a few weeks ago and Jacob knew how to find the are of a trapazoid & we didn’t.  LOL.  I’m proud of him.

Already planning next semester-1~b/c I totally stress about it & 2~b/c I have to.  Have a meeting w/my advisor tomorrow, so I’ll show him what I’ve got planned.    Thinking…Design I, Art History II, Spanish, Math & possibly English(online, oh yeah!!).  It’ll be 12hrs, not counting the English(which would jump me to 15), so I’m going to see if he feels that maybe too much.

Kids have another early dismissal day, so Jacob’s coming to school w/me tomorrow (art history/drawing day) & he seems pretty excited about it.

Trying not to stress about school and life, but its hard.  I still don’t like talking too much about school to my parents/in-laws/etc. b/c it seems that it gets boring for them.  Try not to bug Andrew w/it either, but that’s difficult when he lives w/me.  Everyone’s concerned w/what I’m going to do w/my degree once I graduate-still have NO IDEA!!  Waiting for God to finalize that for me and I’m ok w/it.  Got info from other depts. w/in the art school & am really intrigued w/the sculpture/jewelry making aspect.  Been hard to shake the idea of how I can implement my cross stitching biz (www.wendi4xstitch.wordpress.com) into jewelry.  Pretty fascinating!!

I took my drawing and poli. sci. homework w/me over the weekend to the metropolis of Alpine, TX b/c my MIL feels that we all have to leave town around this time every year b/c its when my FIL passed away…3yrs ago.  Andrew & I don’t feel the need to do that and its frustrates me beyond words when we’re “made” to go.  The boys were exhausted all weekend and we all slept late this morning b/c we got home late last night.  We spend 10hrs in the car to & from, not counting the driving to Marfa (not impressed w/it & its a 30min drive) to just eat lunch.  I dislike being on someone’s time & dime and having personal stuff that needs to be taken care of, but CAN’T!!  I’ll stop complaining now.

Gonna have to get off the computer b/c I need to study for my Poli. Sci. test I have on Wed.  I’ll try to do better about updating the blog.    Comment anytime.

Sept. is here!!

Well, I’m about 2 weeks into school & TOTALLY LOVING IT!! 

Gave my 1st art history presentation yesterday about the Panathenaic amphora w/runners & scored it!!  Not too bad for my 1st attempt.  Poli. Sci’s fine…just lectures 3x/wk & have a test next week.  Math’s ok…just trying to make it through.  Drawing is fun!!  Gotta do a drawing w/LOTS of blank spaces for next Tues.

Still a bit lonely, but I’m slowly opening up to classmates in Drawing mostly.  Its a 3hr class, so you gotta talk eventually.  We have all girls in this class-wierd, I know.  Its fun & my professor is fairly easy to talk to.

Still not sure exactly what God wants me to do w/my art degree.  Most of my personality/strength stuff come out teaching/something, but not getting the God-vibe to do that.  REALLY want to create art & share Him in the process.  {shrug}  Guess I’ll just wait ‘n’ see.  Did get some info today for study abroad in ITALY!!  OMG!!  I’ve always wanted to go there!!  Maybe God’ll hook me (and the family??) up to go sometime.  Would do a summer semester(4-5wks).  Guess I’ll wait for that too.

1st few days o’ college…

were pretty boring.  In every class, we read almost word for word each individual syllabus-YAWN.

I’d like to boast a bit…didn’t get lost, found my classes AND got on the right buses to get to & from my parking.  YEA!!  Actually, lemme thank God for that~~Thank You, Lord!!  He’s kept me pretty calm.

MWF classes are Political Science in the AM & Math in the PM.  Poli Sci. is just an hour of lecture-nice.  Math=an hour of step-by-step instruction, then, online homework.  {shrug}

T/Th classes are Art History in the AM & Drawing I in the PM.  Lecture in the morning seems like it might be cool & I’ve got online notes/quizzes too.  Drawing is 3hrs/day of creativeness!!  Had to draw my self portriot this weekend & will present it for critique Tues.  I might post here…IDK yet.    Also, have Intro to Art on Tues. nights, so I’ll have my 1st class of that tomorrow.

I’m trying to figure out what to do w/my 4hr block of “free time” on MWF…I’ve spent 1hr today playing on FB, etc.  May read some Poli. Sci. homework, I guess.

Think I’ll head somewhere to read for a bit, then it’ll be closer to lunchtime. 

Its almost here!!

I’m 9 days away from my 1st day at Texas Tech!!  Holy cow!! 

I’ve got all my books, except for some extra-special art histroy pckg that I can’t get this later this week, & my general school supplies.    Fin Aid should be disbursed on Thursday, so tuition, etc. will be taken care of too.  Bus routes still aren’t updated-WHY NOT?!?!  {shrug}

Got Back-2-school night for the boys on Thursday, so we’ll be meeting all their teachers & stuff.  YEA!!  They’re 1st day is next Monday, so I’ll have a couple of days of filling out all their paperwork, etc.-YUCK!!

REALLY trying to exercise faith lately…stressing over $$ again, job stuff & our newest wrench-insurance is going up $110/month!!  Its a bit overwhelming.  If you wanna send up a prayer for us, I’d appreciate it.  Andrew is still trying to find out his purpose in life-only God can tell him that & the boys are just being kids(which is trying in itself).

Guess its time to get some lunch for us all and finish getting my housework caught up before the craziness hits.  Talk again soon.

1 month to go…

before my 1st day of college!!  YEA!!  I’m getting SO excited!!  I hoping to order my books ($500 worth) w/in the next couple of weeks & finish up getting what the boys need.

I went last Friday to take a Spanish placement test…I want to have Spanish as my minor, but wasn’t sure where to start out.  My Spanish is OK, but I don’t remember everything.  The test itself wasn’t too bad & took about 2 hours.  I’m going up tomorrow to p/u my results w/the boys~so, we’re having a field trip & lunch at the SUB!!  I’m hoping for a comprehensive review class, but we’ll see.  Also, waiting for the bus routes to get updated so I can start planning which bus I gotta catch to get to my classes on time.  {sigh}  Othen than that, I’m just sitting & waiting…some more. 

I’ve already daydreamed about what I’m going to wear the 1st day-wanna make a good impression- and meeting new people. SO silly for a 31-yr old.  {shaking my head}