He reigns over the nations

"For God is King of all the earth; Sing praises with a skillful psalm. God reigns over all the nations; God sits on His holy throne." Psalm 47:7-8



On December 28th, students from colleges in South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina and West Virginia drove to Greensboro, NC and got to be part of Campus Crusade for Christ's 2007 Midsouth Winter Conference. We heard talks from Sinclair Ferguson (Fergalicious!), Roger Hershey, Mark Gauthier, and Lauren Winner (my personal favorite).

Something new at Encounter 07 was the "Worship Art Expression Room". Something I personally have been trying to understand and learn about is how to use my art as a type of worship. On Summer Project in New York last summer was the first time I actually was introduced to the idea of praying through artwork and since then, I've been wanting to figure out more about what that means.

In the Art Expression Room, students were invited to use the materials provided to make any type of art they felt led to make. Towards the end, all of the drawings and sculptures were moved into the "holding tank" as an "Encounter Exhibition" if you will, and here's what that looked like!

and all the bells on earth shall ring

the hopes and fears of all the years

a baby, called "God With Us". A child.. imagine that- a perfect child. Fully human and fully God. I don't think many people think of Jesus as a toddler or a middle school prepubescent almost man-boy. But every minute of growing up, he lead a perfect life, every second of every day from age zero until his death. A death of contempt, conspiracy, humiliation, and torture. This tiny baby, who with his small hands, at one point grasped his mother's finger for the first time. The baby who cried- who needed to be held, fed, loved. Isn't that what every one of us is looking for? Someone to say that they think we're alright.. and they'll touch our hand or our arm and tell us we're loved- maybe not with words, but it's something you feel if they really mean it



disease causes people sometimes zoom back into the past, tell stories that happened earlier that day- but 50 years ago. panic because they don't recognize their own families. cries because they think they've been abandoned in a nursing home and that they've been forgotten.

what's happened here? sometimes people fall out of love- can't stand to be touched by each other, won't even look each other in the eye? a friend tries to steal their life by taking an entire bottle of pills? someone's naivety was taken advantage of... if they were pinned down to the floor and stripped of everything- not only their clothes, but their security, their trust, and their innocence.

when a person's career is the continual search for "success", and it really doesn't mean anything at all other than to gauge how you feel versus how someone else feels.


all we seem to see is despair, ignorance and hopelessness. but that baby, one hundred percent human, made of flesh, bones and blood, able to be slain.... was a man who was one hundred percent God- physically able to cry, to stand, to sleep. God sent a baby to be His gift of compassion! He healed the lepers, the blind, the lame... he fed the ones who were hungry and touched the people who were lonely! i know that Jesus cares about all of my problems and issues and crap and He came here to show me what love is and that i can love.

And Mary Said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Luke 1:46-47

Le Cadeau du Temps- Portland Studios Update

Cory Godbey, an illustrator and animator from Portland Studios, sent an update the other day- his animation is now on the web!!

A few posts ago, I told yall about some of the guys we met at Portland Studios... well this is the really awesome thing I was trying to tell you about. It's DONE!

The story of the animation is about sharing; zune-arts is a place for collaborating with other artists and the site makes it possible to see and be inspired by other people... but I think the story goes much deeper than that.. I believe it's also a call for us to get up and share what we know is True!!

Cory made this animation entirely by taking -get this-- SCREENSHOTS of photoshop. unbelievable!!


so now go watch it- I MEAN IT!!!!!

Illustration Friday- Horizion

wanted to try something different- paint on wallpaper

Illustration Friday- Backwards

Somethin' Catchy

i wrote a big long thing about next summer and apparently, it's gone now. but thats ok cause i'm still talkin it over with God and we'll see what happens next. maybe i'll write this part later, but i doubt it.

:)

typography

Contrast Situations


anomaly

direction

concentration

gradation

radiation




repetition

space

texture

cut out animation

this video took a year and half to make, and used more than 10,000 paper cut outs. by Rogier Wieland

You guys give up yet? Or are you thirsty for more?

subtitle: Home Alone I and II, beer chili, ILLUSTRATE THAT!

So...... last night we went to the abby-slash-cardigan and watched Home Alone I and II. Big fun. our chili was made with beer.

Cameron took pictures of all the fun and movie watching. That man is always taking photographs. He's pretty amazing. i like being around that guy

on the cawwwchuh..

that's Erica, Stevo, and Mike Sudduth

i never don't look ridiculous

CARLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Introducing Jacob Reeves. He's going to be a famous illustrator one day

Also, from now on whenever someone says something particularly interesting, like, "Pigeon Ship" or "Suck brick, kid!" and someone says "Illustrate THAT!" then you gotta do it. no questions. it's your next illustration project.

this is where that's going to be happening.

Charlotte Metro

Portland Studios

Today, we visited Portland Studios, an Illustration, Animation, and Design studio based in Greenville, SC. We got a tour of their very large and amazing studio, and also got a small peek into their process work (which absolutely made my day!) We learned about what kinds of things they can make for their clients- really cool cd cases, painstaking but overall very satisfying animations, amazing book illustrations... it all blew my mind. I wanted to cry.

I think I was at a point where I very much needed to see that... I've been having an incredibly hard keeping myself motivated lately, and right before finals, that's a very dangerous place to be. Just seeing their work makes me want to keep moving.....

We got to meet Cory Godbey and learn about his animation process.
OH MY GOODNESS. That Cory is very patient. He and Chris Koelle storyboarded and created an animation to a song by Stephen Delopoulous called The Run of the Beast.



I have nothing to say about this wonderful amazing super awesome animation except WOW. and that the Society of Illustrators seems to think so too, because it got accepted into the 50th edition of The Society of Illustrators Annual.

He's currently in the process of making an animation for Microsoft (I think?) --- which I can't seem to find the name for or the page with quick sneak peek animations of the characters.... Anyways, there's an awesome storyline about a man who gets a potion that makes him younger and the consequences that become of him (or don't) when he doesn't share it with his friends. I'm eagerly anticipating news that it's either being used on their website or at least that it's finished. Guys.. someone out there.. I'm not kidding. Tell me AS SOON as it's done!!!




Next, we met Justin Gerard. He just got done illustrating Beowulf (book one) and you can buy that here.


Again. I wanted to cry just looking at the books. He showed us some process-y (and secret!!) things about the image of the boat and vikings. I absolutely can't wait until I learn how to do stuff like that. I want to start right now. RIGHT NOW. Justin - you are number one awesome in my book right now. Also in your Beowulf book too.. since we're speaking of books, of course. but pretty much- i want to be like you.


I really enjoyed visiting Portland. I don't think it was a coincidence that we visited right before finals week when everything was due. I've been feeling pretty sucky lately... about my work and about a whole bunch of other things, but this was so encouraging... I feel like there's hope .. somehow that I'll be out there making art for a living with a bunch of really cool people who love Jesus...

dang that would be awesome.

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good."

Cennini, 1370 – 1440

my grandparents cook WAY better than yours

satisfied tummies make for great stories and awesome sketches

Home for Thanksgiving

Residence Halls closed this morning at 9:00AM, so I had everything packed up (for the most part yesterday) and sat the desk from 7:30-8:30 and then I was off. Have I ever told you how much I dislike driving (especially on highways)? A little bit here and there is fine, I like driving through places that have slower speed limits and more things to look at, but 2 and 1/2 hours from Rock Hill to North Augusta is just aggravating! It is good thinking time, I guess.

I got back home around lunchtime.. I was glad to see my mom and dad and brother again. I think the last time I had seen them was during Fall Break. (which now that I think of it, wasn't that long ago)

My brother plays the baritone now. He couldn't wait to play Jingle Bells for me. He's freaking awesome at it. I doodled him.

Pixar Short Film Collection

November 6, 2007: The Pixar Short Film Collection and Ratatouille DVDs are IN STORES..
Yes. Grace and I were there that afternoon ... talk about exciting! I had seen Ratatouille twice already- the first time was June 29 in New York City (the day it came out!), and the second was on a date with my bro and mom and dad back home. I think I will probably watch it a gazillion more times- the rendering is absolutely gorgeous (and the story's great too)!

Last night, Winthrop's Society of Illustrators showed the Short Films Collection DVD from start to finish. Mike Sudduth, our So Ill Pres, let me make the flyers for the event- We usually have film night on Wednesdays, but because of Thanksgiving coming up, we thought that Monday would be good.

Twenty-five people came to see the Short Films- which was surprising because of the irregularity of the time. I feel like the So Ill kids are getting closer and are forming a tight community. We sit in the auditorium in more of one huge clump rather than last year, when we were all spread out with our own friends. We even had new people come last night who had never even been to So Ill before and we got to meet them and start friendships.

It was super exciting. We started the DVD atom the very first short film Pixar made (The Adventures of Andre and Wally B) and continued all the way through Lifted (Which came out with Rat.) There were parts in the Pixar collection where you could hear us all gasp in horror- Pixar's very first (and very brave) attempt at a human figure- wow- they've definitely come a long way since then.

You can see in the bottom two images- the communication of "a baby" was successful, but obviously they were in the beginning stages of their new technology. Does the toy look familiar? Pixar was foreshadowing (or inspiring!) both Toy Story and One Man Band with this short film.

There's something about Pixar's stories that make them so incredibly witty. I couldn't even count the times that we laughed so hard that we couldn't hear the audio of the movie at all. It was alright though, I really enjoyed spending time with everyone and getting to watch a movie together. I miss that.

Soularium Image Surveys this Thursday!!

This is the flier [c/o Chris Fox and Kinko's] advertising next Thursday's Campus Crusade for Christ meeting. We're going to go through the photographs as groups and discuss why each image that we've picked answers each of the five questions:

1. Which 3 images describe where your life is right now?
2. Which 3 images describe where you wish your life was?
3. Which image describes God to you?
4. Which image describes what you've experienced spiritually so far?
5. Which image describes where you wish you were in your spiritual journey right now?


Ansley, Stephen, and I (and some other Friday Arts Project/Campus Crusaders) have used this survey before on Summer Projects and Winthrop's campus, and every survey that is done is anonymously posted to www.mysoularium.com. My Soularium.com has example photographs from the set and the top 5 image-answers for each of the 5 questions.

Soularium is a great conversation tool because I think it's interesting to get to know someone on a deeper level, you know? I mean, you can know someone for years without even knowing them... knowing where they stand on the important stuff, and what's really important to them. I think that when you're able to answer tough questions - the ones that don't have simple easy one word answers- with photographs, it's like you're opening an entirely different door to their heart..




The soul never thinks without a mental picture. -- Aristotle

Dia De Los Muertos

Every fall, Winthrop has a CVPA (College of Visual and Performing Arts) Sponsored Arts Ball. The themes are really great each year. In the past they've been 'surrealism', 'superheros vs. villians', and last year was 'film noire'. This October, the theme was "Dia De Los Muertos"- or Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is a traditionally Mexican celebration that honors the life of relatives and friends past. If we were going to be accurate about that aspect of history, the Dia De Los Muertos Arts ball this year would have probably been extremely different, but it was fun seeing a lot of college students dressed up as dead guys and skeletons. We probably played up the creepy part a bit much.

The freshmen art majors were responsible for decorating and providing snacks related to the theme. Let's just say that it was a bit weird to be walking around in McBryde with tombstones and eating bone shaped cookies and skeleton cakes.

This is right before we were going to walk across campus. That's me and Angel on the left. Jenny and Will were brave enough to use facepaint.

On the way, we stopped under a lamp post to take a picture of Jenny, Angel, and her Oreo graveyard cake!

There were photo stations set up for anyone who wanted pictures to remember the night.

It was so awesome to see Dr. Dufresne, my Art History Prof from freshman year dressed up for the Ball! Here she is at the sign in table at the entrance of McBryde.

Liiiiiiiiiiiiila Shull!!! We grew up in North Augusta together. I remember in high school seeing her art displayed in the halls and hearing Mrs. Stalk-Vargo brag about how talented Lila was. I think she was born with talent.

Winthrop's music students

Theater majors chatting before a performance

Oh my gosh. Becky!

New friends Julie and Jeannie

This guy made my night! I was talking to Dave and Sally Brown about how cool everything had turned out and I had just gotten used to the skeletons and the rest of the overwhelmingly bright Mexican clothes... I turned around to see this guy- Dead (in a really gross way), and unable to get the salsa off of his spoon!!! He stood there for almost 20 seconds forcefully shaking the spoon up and down, but that salsa wasn't going anywhere. It was hilarious! Dead, frustrated guys are funny.

eye bruises and conception

A week ago, I sent a message via facebook to my pal, Grace exclaiming that my eye had popped and was bleeding all over the place! This caused a small deal of concern amongst a few of our mutual friends (of which we have 57 to be exact).
I trekked to Crawford- Winthrop's infirmary and had a small adventure... which i have illustrated below!!

This is my eye. The bloody part is at the very top and I couldn't see it unless I pulled my eyelid upwards and/or put on mascara. I actually wasn't bleeding all over the place.. Sometimes I can get a tiny bit dramatic when I am panicky.

When I got to Crawford, they had me wait for like 45 minutes and then when they were finally ready for me to go into the office, I had to wait almost 45 more minutes! I was looking around and I found a round paper spinny thing that Grace has henceforth named the "Conception Wheel." The curious child I am, OF COURSE I had to touch it! I moved the top circle until the "due date" arrow was pointing to my birthday (Sept 19) and I know I shouldn't have... I didn't want to do it before I even picked up the thing... but I looked.

Turns out I'm a Christmas baby. EW!!

(not that Christmas is bad or gross- but... dang. Merry Christmas to Mom and Dad!)

When the nurse finally came in, she took me into the hallway to waste some more time. She confirmed to me that I do, in fact, have 20/20 vision.

We went back into the office and she said that she was going to have to use the "Eye Kit" on me. SCARY!

She put some numbing drops in my eye (which did not feel numbing at all- very close to a stinging sensation) and then some stuff that wasn't exactly highlighter fluid, but it might as well have been.



Then she turned off the lights and we had a blacklight Rave!!!


----just kidding!!----

She really did turn off the lights though, and she had a black light shield thing and she looked in my bright yellow eye to see if I had somehow cut it. Alas, no cut.

Two hours, two stinging (then really numb) eyes, three drops of yellow hilighter, a dance party and ten dollars later, I found out that it was only a bruise..

and that it could have happened because of a sneeze.