Senior show fun.

Thursday I turned in my work for the senior show! Its was a bit late due to some unexpected time confusion and a meeting going on in the class room my stuff was in, but I got it in! Everyone was suposed to meet at 4pm to put everything up, and I needed my camera from dear Cody's apartment so i could print off a picture of how it was suposed to go up. The moment I left the school it started pouring down raining. As I ran into Cody's apartments Courtyard, i slipped on wet grass, landed on my left hand and hit my head on the concrete sidewalk.

Oh what fun that was, if hurt like the dickens, and my hand seemed like it was rather injured. Cody, being the sweet boy he is, rushed me around town looking for a walk-in clinic that accepted my insurence. It was a regular fiasco. I ended up finally getting in somewhere, and found out that i had "acute soft tissue damage in my left hand" but my head my fine, and I ended up with one hell of a bruise on my left theigh.

And while I was running around trying to recieve treatment, My teacher put up my senior show!
The recieption was great, i got alot of compliments on my work, and all in all, was very proud of myself. Its hard to believe I'm done with college.

Almost...theres still finals.

Its almost over

We had our Final cratique of our work the other day, and I put Allll my work up on the board. Its really a hell of alot of stuff.

All and all I was very happy with all my work, though our guest Cratiquer didnt have much to say to me in the way of weather or not he liked the work, just suggested I look into traveling. Then joel and I spent the rest of class figuring out how I would put up my stuff in the senior show which was due the next day. Heres what it should look like:
I'm not ready for school to be over.

Magnolia Village, trip 2

November 26th, Its family day at Magnolia village!
Children running around, playing games, families meditating and practicing Buddhism together. Piles of food layed out in the large Kitchen. What a day.

I dont get up as early as I did for trip 1, and get there around 11am, with my camera and drawing supplies. Its a beautiful and rather warm day, so i get to do planty of nice drawings of the children playing.

And Oh the food, so much yummy yummy food. White rice, vegatable soup, this green bean salad stuff that was delicously salty, fresh fruits, a yummy noodle mix, and these fruit jello squares that i cant even begin to describe how they tasted!

And it was someones anniversery, so there was cake, and the mood was just generally night and happy. My drawings turned out"spot on" according to Joel. Heres the best ones:

Color peices

Pretty much all my work this semester has been ink drawings, black ink drawings. One night i decided to change this up and work on come color ink drawings. The first one was great!

Joel incouraged me to do more, and although i didnt reach his mark of 10 more, the second was even more lovely then the first!

They are some of my favorate drawings this semester.

Magnolia Village, trip 1

I saw on the Dharma memphis website that once a month they have a sunday retreat day at this Buddhist retreat center called Magnolia Village. Magnolia Village is about an hour south of memphis in Mississippi, basically in the middle of nowhere. But it sounded like a really beautiful place, and the trip was suposed to include a whole day of activities. Activies I could potentailly draw!
So we were all suposed to meet at the Magnolia Village before 9am, meaning I needed to leave around 7:30am to give myself time not to get lost, which ment I was waking up around 6:30-7am. REALLY REALLY early. So make myself get up, start my drive south with a giant cup of coffee, spot a deer on my way there, and finally make it there about 15 min. until 9am.
Theres only one problem, I am the only person who shows up....

....But! This turns out to be just as good, i spend the day talking and drawing the daily activities of the Vietamese family that owns the grounds and runs the retreat center. They are possably some of the nicest people I have ever met, making sure i am comfortable the whole time I am there. It turns out to be a lovely day, I get a great home cooked vegitarian meal, and they gave me a book about the parrallels between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha. They also tell me that on Novenmber 26th, there will be a family day there, with lots of kids, and that i should definatly come. I certainly will!

Dragon seat meditation hall

After many attempts at finding this place, and getting confused with the temple which is not open at night, i finally figure out which building Dragon Seat meditation hall is. I am ever so glad I did too, because i met alot of really awsome people there!

Every thursday night, at 7pm, a group gets together to meditate and then hang out. I came early on this particular day to talk to some people. I met Lahma Kampou(I probably spelt that wrong) who was working on caligraphy, and we sat and had ourselves a chat about art and india and where he grew up.

It was a very enjoyable time, I did lots of drawing, met lots of local buddhists who didnt mind at all that I am Agnostic, and drank some good tea. Good stuff. Now with the Dragon seat drawings!