Goings On

Hi! I said I'd give another update so here it is. This week has been pretty busy. Since I was sick a couple weeks ago, had a photo assignment to finish last week, and celebrated my birthday last weekend a lot of stuff has built up that needs to be done and deadlines are approaching. I've been working on my paintings as well as trying to keep track of everything else that I need to do. I think it's about that time for a list.

Some deadlines I've been stressing about lately: Photo presentation to be given on Monday, Art History presentation to be given in the second week of April, Haunted Castle proposal to be handed in on Monday, Tax Returns, Financial Aid forms, last studio day sometime in mid April, last day of my Burren semester, the 22nd. My head is crazy with deadlines. All of those not to mention trying to find an internship and/or job in Worcester as well as trying to solidify my traveling plans starting right after my last day at Burren. It's all absolutely nuts. This whole experience has been so incredible so far and I can't believe it's almost over!

Despite how much is on my plate I've been really good this week about taking my time and doing what I can to get things done. I worked on my portrait of Liam and started a new portrait of my friend Alyssa. Aside from that I've done a couple other small paintings just to stay loose and have been taking care of business such as creating my resume and contacting people in Worcester about summer plans. I'm pretty confident I can get everything done in due time, I just hate thinking about it, haha.

This week in life drawing we got to go outside because it's been so lovely. The weather is warm and the sun is shining. I made a couple really nice drawings of the model hanging around on campus; don't worry! She had her clothes on! haha. It was really nice to be able to draw outside though. I feel so cooped up sometimes in my studio even though it has tons of windows, especially when I know it's so gorgeous out! On that note, Spring has sprung and it's incredible. It's getting warm and there are baby animals everywhere and all the trees and bushes are budding and it's beautiful!!! I love love LOVE spring and it's quite the experience when you live in the country, I must say that I can't complain.

Let's see, what else, what else, oh yeah! We are going to the Aran Islands this weekend. They are off the coast of Doolin and there are three of them. Their names are Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer. We are staying on the largest of the three, Inishmore. I'm really excited because they are supposed to be really beautiful and I think it will be a lot of fun. The only thing is that we have SO much work to do that I almost kind of wish we weren't going. It's always nice to go on trips, but sometimes I don't know when this school wants us to do our work! haha. I'm on a good track right now though, so hopefully it won't set me back too far. We will be leaving on Saturday and coming back on Sunday so maybe I can get some work done that night if I'm not too tired.

Oh! Also, I will be going to a haunted castle next weekend!!! It's an extra trip that we have to pay for individually and it's sort of an assignment based trip but I'm SO STOKED. It's an ACTUAL haunted castle, one of the most haunted ones in Ireland. It's called the Charleville Castle and it's located in county Offaly and we get to spend the night. Yup, that's right, not just going to visit, spending the night. I hope I see some ghosts!!! I've never had a ghostly experience before and I think it would be really exciting, especially in IRELAND! But yeah, we have to do some kind of project while we are there, either drawing or photo. I think since I'm in Martina's photo class I need to be doing photos but I'm not sure what I'll be doing just yet. Just another thing I have to think about, haha. That will be really fun though.

Kay, well I guess that's all for now. We have Irish Studies tomorrow and I don't know what we are doing. Tonight is another Disco, but to be honest I'm still a little Disco'd out from Saturday and watching Ace of Cakes MIGHT be a little more exciting to me, haha. Slash, I have a lot of stuff I still have to do and I'm exhausted, but I promised Hannah and Casey I would go, so I will go for a little bit =)

Alrighty, I guess I should go get ready now since they seem to be almost ready to go. Here are my paintings that I've been working on. The one of Alyssa is almost done and the one of Liam needs some more work (don't mind the nose, I had some trouble with the shape haha). I've been going in a little bit of a different direction, pulling back a bit from the subject and working on getting depth in the background. I REALLY like the direction these are headed and Alyssa's is my absolute favorite so far. I really want to continue doing figurative portraits and because I very much enjoy painting these. Maybe I can find a way to work this type of painting into my capstone class next semester. Anyways, here they are. Until next time!

Liam

Alyssa