peacock for a night

This weekend, NNU had their annual TWIRP (The Woman Is Required to Pay) date weekend. (Although I didn't have to pay because my friend Peter, who I asked, is on leadership, thanks peter)
The theme this year was Noah's Ark, and as tradition holds, the first evening of the two night date adventure, you are supposed to dress up in that theme. So, we were peacocks. Getting out of class an hour before the event started, we ran (figuratively)to walmart, the thrift store and to my parent's house to get some overgrown plants that were then assembled into feathers. I don't know if the blue eye-shadowed faces were worth it, but we needed to become the part!




Peter and I hung out with our friends Mike and Carly during the weekend, who were chameleons. Throughout the two nights we went to the Ringling Bros. Circus, parks, the corn maze, ice skating, dinner, coffee shops and to a rented out movie theatre, where I fell asleep. It was a fun way to delay homework. Here Carly and I are in Julia Davis Park.

Off to that delayed homework.

today,

thank you God for being God.

the coat is officially out of the closet

I had been avoiding my new lovely gray coat. Because putting it on means I am entering the 7 month season that in my mind should last only 2.

In one of my design classes last week we watched Cesky Sen, a Czech documentary that two film students created about the power of advertising. In the film they trick thousands into going to a new hypermarket that actually doesn't exist, through smart advertising. It is very interesting, you should see it. After viewing the film our class discussed designing adverstising. Our teacher asked, "Is there anything you wouldn't design for?"

Is there anything I wouldn't design for? I was surprised I hadn't thought about this before, but when I started thinking about a list of items or ideas I wouldn't want to support as a designer, the count was short. There are two camps. One says "If someone is going to design for Camel cigarettes, it might as well be me, as a Christian designer I could make the decision to put no bikinis in an ad and could be a positive influence on that industry." The other opinion is that you simply don't work to promote something you don't agree with. For example, formatting layouts for a cigarette company could be furthering someone's addiction, and whether or not you agree with smoking, by designing, you are behind what that company promotes.

Then there is the question of how much and what kind of involvement is enough or too much. I haven't had this conflict come up in my little design experience, but it's another question I wish could be answered simply for me. I'm not going to design for Camel but how many companies are really integrity full? What do you think?

(back to my waffle and berries)

a quandry

Friends,
I am curious.
How do you find time to do things you love? Things that are a part of you? I'm finding that some things get pushed back just because we're focusing on another interest.
I guess it comes back to weighing priorities, but I don't want to stop what I am doing, it's just sad knowing that the things I'm not doing are becoming less familiar.

What do you think?

happy autumn leaves

Tonight I spent time with a friend I haven't really talked with in 3 years or so. We are completely different people now with nice familliar hints of why we became friends in the first place.

We found out that though we are different and experienced different things, we both have grown in our desire and hopefully in our understanding of who God is. I was reminded to be praying for God's involvment in all of His people, even when I can't see it. I thank my friend for reminding me of all He can do.

We are back in the full swing of routine this fall, nights lasting longer and longer. I am thankful for my drives to work in the morning with the heater slowly warming, and papua new guinea coffee safely in the other hand while watching the sun come up.

it is about time

Hello friends, I have missed communicating with you while being caught in the whirlwind of moving back to Idaho! I am back.
The first week or so back (it's almost been a month now), I felt as though Nampa was playing a trick on me, it looked the same, smelled the same, but I fit differently. Many of you have moved a few times, but Kansas City for the summer was my first venture, actually settling in somewhere other than Idaho. This was a strange place to come back to. Many friends who made up my "home" before I left Nampa are now living in other places, so I have been attempting to become comfortable with a new routine and place. I am trying to look at this transition as another to add to the list of experiences that help me grow, and people here have been wonderful in making that pretty easy.

It is fun watching nature change with everything else around me. I have managed to go back and forth between AC and heat in my car about 5 times in the past 3 days!
(That is when I'm not riding my bike.)

I am trying some new forms of discipline this fall. Some, if not a lot, of structure is good for me. So I am anticipating better habits of exercise, prayer, learning how to cook and reading all assigned reading before class...hurrah for at least good intentions which have the possibility of being accomplished!

I will now show you a few pieces of my week in NY.
It was so neat to be re-inspired to make art, with great art friends, and more galleries and exhibits than I had time to see.

Waiting for the subway, always one of my favorite parts of traveling in a city. Although, NY doesn't have as organized of a system or as clean as other underground systems I have experienced. Still, very fun to watch so many different kinds of people, squished together for 3 minutes at a time, then to never see each other again.


In SoHo, I just happened to run into one of my FAVORITE furniture stores,
Design Within Reach.
It was a surprise that made me scream and ask permission to sit in and take pictures of beautiful furniture I will only imagine having.


This is part of the magnificent view inside the Guggenheim Museum. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the fabulous structure, obviously intentionally designed for a cohesive space in which one is able to view art and share that experience with other viewers around them. I wish I could give you a video going around and up and down the circular path inside the building, you will just have to go see it for yourself! Being inside this museum was one of the times I felt thankful that I am able to enjoy art and have been exposed to some of it's world.


When in New York, you also at times, are required to be a tourist.
This happened to be the day in the city that the subway flooded and we walked miles in unplanned shoes. It was hotter than any day of my summer in kansas city. mmm mmm.


The first Macy's which takes up an entire block, and every floor is used for retail.
(this is for you, grandma barbara!)

I am so thankful for the art department I get to call home, and for the kind teachers who plan trips like these, trips that remind you why you are doing what you are.

After NY, I was able to spend one more week in KC- to soak up enough humidity for the next year, to be fortunate enough to see my dear friends move into their new home, and say some good byes for now.
My kind father and I then drove west, only making a one hour detour out of the way into Colorado instead of Wyoming, when we were more worried about a policeperson on our side, than we were about taking the correct exit.

Here is the steady Idaho sky I saw an hour away from Nampa. From one desert to another.

live from new york, it is friday night

I have not been doing my part in our conversation this past week, I am sorry.I want to thank you, my friends and family for reading and responding and keeping in touch through this wonderful thing called the internet.
I guess my tardiness is due to the stressful ending of my internship. Projects that I wanted to completely finish before I left were taking longer and there were a lot of "final duties", but more than that I was feeling sad and overwhelmed that it was all ending. You know, questioning if I had done all that I could have and wondering if I appreciated it enough while in it. I think I lived in the moment and it felt great. I have been out of town the past couple of days and it feels weird not being in kansas and missouri.

but i have been in a great place...new york city! I am here with the art department from NNU on an art history tour. it is wonderful. i have been taking photos of course but forgot my cord, so pictures to come. Similar to how I felt after traveling to Europe last summer, it has been incredible to see that art is not just a hobby that an "artsy" person chooses to take on, but a vital, important part of culture. We have been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (which was incredible, I have to go back to see the rest), the Frick Collection, which is a mansion of a family who accumulated a vast amount of work from 12th century alter pieces to Van Eck, Rembrandt and Whistler. It is rewarding to see pieces in their greatness after seeing them in inches in history books. Also my wonderful art history, drawing and painting teacher Amanda, who is leading the trip had her new york artist friend take us around Chelsea, New York, to lots of independent galleries. That has maybe been the most exciting outing yet, seeing contemporary art as it is happening and having people to discuss it with! I want to get back and make things right now!

We can choose what we do with our evenings and meals and there have been many savory restaurants we have stumbled upon...tonight was sushi!

I don't have much wit or pondered conclusions to write of, but I am having a blessed week and wanted to say hello to you my friends.

ps-I found out minimum wage was raised to $5.85 in Nampa! even if it was forced, we're movin on up.

good night and good wishes

(thanks for your note uncle larry!)