READERS DIGEST VERSION

No one will actually want to read my last post so I'm going to try and sum it up:

I was inspired by the idea of roots while in Utah visiting my family and saw the way they affect each other.

I want to find a way to portray the way families can give the same strength and initiative to grow as roots do to plants, and really connect them. I also like the idea of how they (roots/families) affect each-other and have a lot of control over someone's (plants/people) life.

I think in my pieces I would try to connect them in literal senses if possible, so I really need to think about it.

We're In a Tight Spot

I actually began thinking about my concentration during the summer, especially on my trip to Utah to visit most of my family. May I say, after really thinking about my concentration for the past few days I have realized that the idea I favored most was inspired by the relations I saw on the trip with my family. At the time I just came up with "Roots" and brainstormed all the ways it can be portrayed, but recently I have focused on the similarity between roots and family. So I was told to write questions and for the past two days I have written questions and now I just need to try and develop them into a solid idea.

Basically I'm using this post to organize my thoughts, which I know, isn't very interesting to anyone.

So I will try and sum it up best I can, I know my ideas tend to conflict and contradict each other, so this will probably be a very scratchy idea of my final concentration.

The reliance people have on their families as plants do to their roots. Roots give strength, nutrition, and other means to grow and survive, just as families can. Of course there are ways families can destroy one, but I think that means someone's roots then have the initiative to spread and seek out new sources of compassion to give themselves reason to thrive.

Actually I don't know if I want to make families the roots or the roots of families.

Actually I don't know exactly how to connect all my ideas. I think I need to clear out some ideas and focus on just a few.

How do families supply the same strength to someone as roots do to plants?

Where do our roots go to?

Why do some people embrace their family/ancestor roots?

Do severed roots affect one's ability to live?

How are families developed because of their roots?

How do family roots change people?

Why do some people sever those roots?

Do roots hold a connection to the earth as family does to love?

How do families keep us stabilized like roots?

How do families keep people rooted?

Where do roots begin?

Are someone's roots left after their death?

Do people seek out distinction in their roots?

Can roots destroy as well as create?

How are families connected and disconnected?

Can roots be uprooted?

I need to think about it all some more, but this is my general idea that I have been rolling around for a few months, and can't rid of it with any of my other ideas.

The Weather

I can easily say that nothing too exciting happened for me this weekend.

EXCEPT that my dad taught me how to find the weather on the mountains all by myself.

It was really exciting, because now I can figure out the wind-chill depending on the temperature and the wind speed differing each hour.

So now when I need to predict the qualities of a day at the mountain, I can do it with ease.

There will be no more guessing work in my upcoming skiing season, which is good because I don't want to spend money to go all the way to the mountain and then have a sucky time because it's below zero and I didn't check the weather accurately enough.

I'm really excited to go, I haven't gone yet, I prefer the spring ski season to the winter one, but I still want to get up there in the next couple of weeks.

FUR

So this last weekend I watched the full intensity of Fur: an imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus.

It so so so interesting and odd and wonderful and I would really recommend it.

It's basically about this house wife- Diane Arbus- who falls in love with her neighbor who has that condition where his hair grows really fast all over his body.

Diane Arbus was a photographer, or is, I don't really know much about her, but anyways I really enjoyed the movie!

...

So I was listening to some songs by the decemberists and started listening really close attention to the lyrics and realized how they use such simple words. I really like that, they kind of play everything out in a really slow fashion, and with really nice imagery.

Then i was thinking about what to do for that book the whistling season. I found the one paragraph that i for some raeson really liked, even though i don't see what could be done with it, and i don't really see what's nice about it. but for some reason i just like the way it sounds when read.

--Cupping the black arrowhead in his hand again, he looked off appraisingly at the prairie bluffs around us. "With all the crisscross possible, this may have been a Mediterranean of a kind." As if Father had invisibly put in his two cents' worth, he gave a slight smile of concession. "Dryland, of course."

I really don't know why i like it

sketchbooks

This year I feel like I haven't been taking enough on my sketchbooks. I do once and a while, but I feel like I should focus more when I do them. Last year I always had tons of ideas and could never choose what to do for my sketchbooks, now I can never think of anything aka I'm really stuck this year compared to last year, which is REALLY annoying me. So Monet and I had a background making party and played with water color pencils to make some backgrounds to help us. I don't know if they really will, but hopefully they make some of my sketchbooks more interesting, or inspire me. Either way, I'm proud of us to have actually done something about it, because we usually don't. yaaaaaayyyy

song & thoughts

SONG: The Crane Wife part 3 by the Decemberists

And under the boughs unbowed
All clothed in a snowy shroud
She had no heart so hardened
All under the boughs unbowed

Each feather, it fell from skin
Until threadbare, she grew thin
How were my eyes so blinded?
Each feather, it fell from skin

And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low

A gray sky, a bitter sting
A rain cloud, a crane on the wing
All out beyond horizon
A gray sky, a bitter sting

And I will hang my head, hang my head low
And I will hang my head, hang my head low

--------------------------------------------------------

I think for the sketchbook that is due tomorrow I will do thumbnails on either "Since I only see inside of me/ What brain imagines outside me," from the poem i chose or "Until threadbare, she grew thin" from the song i chose, i don't really know yet, and should probably get on that.

Poem

So last winter my family and I went to a play at Portland Center Stage called R. Buckminster Fuller: The HISTORY (and MYSTERY) of the Universe, and I LOVED IT. It wasn't necessarily a play, more like a one man show and he just went into all this stuff about this dude. Just as a child he was so interesting and just everything he thought about blows me away, so I chose a poem that he wrote...

Cosmic Plurality

by R. Buckminster Fuller

Environment to each must be

All there is, that isn't me.

Universe in turn must be

All that isn't me AND ME.

Since I only see inside of me

What brain imagines outside me,

It seems to be you may be me.

If that is so, there's only we.

Me and we, too

Which love makes three,

Universe

Perme-embracing

It-Them-You-and-We.

What I Found

I started looking at some of Gustave Caillebotte's pieces today and this one jumped out at me.

I really like the values and the shine on the floor and the movement of the people. Its called "The Floor Strippers". In general, most of his pieces have really good light and dark values in my opinion. Anyways I just really like his work, especially this one

Alphabet Project

Follow--

I think I will try and paint this, but not as detailed as I usually would, so it will be a stretch, but I'm really excited about it because I like the picture.

Alone

Gallant

left behind

Prominent

Successful fail

WEELLLLLLL i finally figured it out, and I've decided movie theaters are stupid. But I'm still going to the earliest showing i can, at 10:05 am. Those tickets are cheap cheap too I believe, which is nice, but still disappointing.

Oh we're in school then. Never mind.

where the wild things are: the search

So, basically, I'm extremely excited to see Where the Wild Things Are.

Right now, rather than doing my homework, I am looking for a theater that would have a midnight premiere to go to, and apparently I'm really bad at using the internet because movie show-time websites confuse me A LOT.

Anyways, I feel as though I should re-read the book, because I don't really remember anything about it besides loving it.

Testing

1. testingtestingtesting