A better me

The past few months have been all about living a happier life and working towards a much better me.  Living by the beach was the first step.  Life seems so much more pleasant and relaxing.  I was running and walking on the beach a lot, but I found a workout location to go to, Transformation Center in Huntington Beach.  It has been great!  I love my fitness trainer, Alex.  He is just the right mix of pushing us past our comfort zones, motivation, and support.  I'm happy to have found him. I think what I like most about him is that he explains the reasons why he has us train and eat the way we do... AND he gives examples.  Being a teacher, this seems to work for me. I do have to admit that I feel like I'm cheating on Brea Fit Body.  I thoroughly miss them, a lot!  But this is for the best.  I feel so much more healthier and stronger!  I think part of it is that I have nothing to distract me from focusing on creating a healthier and happier life for myself. 

Plus, I'v been showing my Mizzles and paintings of their adventures at the Santa Ana Art walk the past few months with Orange County Creatives Gallery.  Jason and Maggie Tockey have been so great to me... and to my best friend. I am looking forward to showing with them again in December.  And I might be showing some work in their new Laguna location!!!  I'm a little excited about that opportunity. 

I joined the Huntington Beach Art League in September and this past October meeting I submitted my first entry to be judged.  I entered Mizzles Camping in the Mixed Media category.  Whoever demonstrates an art technique at the meeting gets to judge the artwork.  To my pleasant surprise, I took 1st place! 

So, with all of this healthy living and positive feedback from showing my work, it only makes sense that I have renewed energy and determination to complete my children's story about the Mizzles.  I have to say I have a few doubts, but those are just compositional kinks that I will work out.  Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the progress I've been making. 

It seems that the specific location I moved to is filled with people who hit a "rock bottom" and are finding themselves, or finding ways to make them a better version of themselves.  We are all creative types, who enjoy living by the beach.  I can't help to think how perfectly meant to be this all has been.  I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me!

Spring = baby squirrels

As you may have figured out, I am obsessed with squirrels.  I have always liked observing squirrels in parks, walks through UCLA campus, or on trips in other states.  But my obsession with squirrels ignited when I began writing my story. Now I can't help but do a girly squeal when I see one.  In addition, my family have begun to share this passion of mine.  There is a squirrel, who visits my parents' backyard on a regular basis.  Her name is Striker.  Originally we thought she was a boy until I got a photo of her standing on her hind legs.  It told us a different story.  We know it is her because of her brownish grey fur and bushy tail.  There are a few other squirrels who visit also, but they have smaller tails and run at the slightest sound. 

Well I noticed a while back that Striker looked bigger.  I mentioned to my family that I thought she was pregnant.  I was right!  Sunday, she brought her 3 little ones with her as we fed her.  They ran around the trees, and one another, and would stop and watch me feed their mom from a safe distance.  When I was done feeding her, she spent the rest of the day burying peanuts in the backyard.  The 3 little ones just played non-stop.  It was fascinating to just watch them.

Storytelling and the Self Portrait

Yesterday, I had my students begin to share stories of their childhood.  This is an activity I began doing with my students last year in order to get them thinking about various things to incorporate into their self portrait other than the obvious "likes" and "dislikes."  It seems to help them remember the small details that they so easily overlook. Self Portraits are not an easy thing to create.  High School students have an especially difficult time with this assignment because they want to be extremely literal with no reference to history or culture.  Hopefully with all of the questions and stories they are asked to think about and share they will explore outside the boundaries of the literal. 

The self portrait can effectively tell one's story visually when done with thought, insight, and honesty.

Today I was going over my calendar of events and lesson plans.  I exhausted myself just looking at it.  I could think of nothing more than making time to relax, although, I'm not exactly sure when that will be.  At least I can live vicariously through my drawings.

  

Too High! Too High!

I'm still playing with my story and decided to create another drawing for it.  Here the squirrel is taking the sock up to its drey, or squirrel home, but the sock is afraid of heights. My prep period was very short today because we have minimum days when we begin a new semester.  I'll have more time to play with my story this week when I have an hour to designate to it.  At the very least, playing with parts of the story for my daily sketches will help me think about parts that need to be cut, or revise.

PB Dummy book challenge

I am participating in two challenges.  One is the 12x12 in 2012.  The second is the Picture Book Dummy Challenge.  I wrote my first draft of one story for the month of January, which I was proud of completing. For the month of February, I thought I would rework my story for the PB Dummy challenge.  The problem is I haven't worked on it much.  I haven't really been in a writing mood, and when I do think or work on it, I think I complicate my story much more.  I really need to outline and restructure it.  That is going to be my goal for this week.  In thinking about my story, I decided to use it for my idea for today's drawing.

 But when I completed this drawing, I immediately had an idea for another drawing.  This led me to the idea of having themes for each week for my daily drawings... at least for a month or two.