School of Hard Knocks

On August 19th I will be starting my fourth and second to last semester at ASU. Going back to college after a three year absence has been a bit of a challenge but I think it's been really good for me as well. Ever since I dropped out of college in 2006 (I preferred to call it "taking a break" at the time) it's been bothering me...haunting me even. My whole educational career I was a straight A student, well, there were a few Bs in there, who dreamed of going to presitgious schools in far away cities but when I got to high school I developed almost crippling anxiety and all of my hopes of going to an ivy league school went out the window. By my senior year of high school even the thought of driving to Tempe everyday to ASU so frightening to me that I ended up at community college instead. I like to believe that everything happens for a reason though and if I hadn't gone to community college I never would have met my first love. Even though this love didn't turn out the way I had hoped it would (at the time) I'm still glad that I met that person because he helped me overcome a lot of my phobias and insecurities. My life did get a little topsy-turvy when this relationship came to an end but I think that now I'm (finally) back on track. In the past few years I've realized that I don't need anyone to take care of me and that I'm fully capable of taking care of myself. I'm still hopeful that love will find me again in the future but for now I'm trying to learn how to be happy on my own. Of course I do have many incredible people in my life that love and support me so I'm never really alone.

When I made the decision to go back to school I also made a goal for myself that I would maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout the rest of my education and so far I've achieved that goal. Before I went back to school I was having some confidence issues both in my general intelligence and as an artist but since I've returned to school I've regained a lot of that lost confidence. And it's funny that even though I'm naturally a shy person, a wall-flower even, I've managed to become a favorite of all of my professors. I can't really explain why but they've all taken a shine to me. I'm most certainly not the most talented artist in my drawing classes but in the past few semesters I think I've definitely developed my own personal style (other than my comics ) and I'm very proud of that. During critiques my classmates can instantly identify which pieces are mine and that makes me happy. I might be a little O.C.D. when it comes to my drawings (each one takes about 9-15 hours) but I've always been a very meticulous person and I think the little details are very important in my art. So even if a professor doesn't like my piece they can never say that it was because it was half-assed or that I didn't put enough time into it.

When I first moved back to Phoenix from Portland (I moved out of my parents house in spring of 2008 to Portland, OR and lived there for 6 months--and yes, I am a bit of a late bloomer as far as moving out goes) I thought that 2 1/2 years of schooling seemed like forever but in actuality it's FLOWN by. I'm even kind of sad that I didn't get to take all of the classes I wanted to take. I would've liked to have taken a painting class, graphic design, printmaking, photography and many many more art history classes but now I've almost run out of time. And since I'm a senior, my last two semesters have already been planned out so I know exactly what classes I'll be taking this last year of college.

So before I wrap this up I'd like to post a few of my favorite drawings I've done thus far:

                                                                          Birds #1

charcoal on paper

Birds #2

charcoal on paper

Octo-gumball

charcoal on paper

Buddhist Culture Series

chacoal on paper

Coral Reef Series

charcoal on paper

*I'm pretty lazy about photographing my work but I'll gradually post more drawings, both old and new, later on.