So, what are you doing after you graduate?

Okay, here's part 1 of the latest news.

First of all, I have an answer to the all-too-frequent question, "What are you going to do after you graduate?" I will be heading back to good old Sonoma and going on Young Life staff there. It is at least a 2 year commitment to complete the training, and then we'll see what happens after that. Our area director, Debbie, is one of my favorite people in the world, and I'm really excited to be working with her. Plus, she needs help--currently she is the only staff member in our whole area, and that is a BIG job. It is a paid position, but I need to raise the majority of my own support (yay for ministry jobs!).

I'm excited about this step for a lot of reasons. First of all, although God has been sending more art opportunities my way than I know what to do with (more on that later), it's going to be awhile before I can depend solely on my artwork for a living. So I'd have to find some kind of job anyways, and I'd much rather be doing something I'm passionate about (kids, camp, youth ministry, messy games, etc.) than working at Safeway or something. Secondly, it's a flexible job that will allow me to continue to build my art career on the side. Thirdly, I'll get to continue my education, meet incredible people, hang out with junior high and high schoolers, and get paid for it! Woot!

Finally, I have felt strongly called to Sonoma for a long time. I love that town, I love the people, I love the schools, the teachers, the bajillion "____ and Wine" festivals. My roots are there and, as much as I love APU and have had an INCREDIBLE college experience, I'm ready to invest in a community that isn't going to disappear after a semester. I want to dig in to that town, go to the football games and band concerts, help plan the Young Life banquets, do the car washes, all that good stuff!

It really feels like this is the right thing to do, a good next step. God even worked out a roommate situation for me, so I won't have to live with my parents! (I love them dearly, but it would feel like a step backward). My good friend Wendi, who is a teacher at my old elementary school and goes to our church, will be moving to Sonoma in May (when I graduate--how perfect is that!) and needs a roommate. Glory be!

So! That's enough for one post--more to come later!

Senior Show #1

Fun Photo of some of my artist friends and I in the fort we built in our studio.

Hey, fans, just so you know, I'm alive and well and about to have an art show! It opens this Tuesday--woot woot! If you want to see what I've been doing with my life, go to my art blog (there's a link around here somewhere...). I have other big life news, but it, like everything else, is just going to have to wait for a few more days. :-D

Art, Life, and Chess?

So school officially started yesterday, and I pretty much love my life right now. I have the coolest classes with the coolest professors EVER, and I'm a big senior now, so I have to work really hard but I pretty much get to do whatever I want. AMAZING! I've got my old job at the children's bookstore back, where I'm making signs, writing and performing puppet shows, coming up with craft activities for 10 kids with 10 minutes notice, and, my favorite, reading out loud for story time!

Life with my roommates is good--we're almost completely moved in now, minus a kitchen table (which a friend of mine used over the summer) and a bookcase (we're scouring the thrift stores). We're living in a much nicer apartment than I ever have before--it's fun! Plus, 90% of my friend are living in the same complex, many of them just a few doors down! It's a blast to have so many good friends so close. I hope I can make the most of it this year.

Finally, since the bookstore didn't need me for as many hours as I'd hoped, I got a job as a chess instructor! I know, random. I mean, I'm no expert. But this company, the American Chess Institute, had changed a lot of kids lives. Through learning, and having fun with, chess, they improve in a lot of different aspects of their lives. And...being an instructor pays $20 an hour! The people at ACI are really fun, and they don't want kids to be bored by chess. I'm actually looking forward to this job a lot! I've been spending the last few days taking mini-chess lessons online, and there is a lot to learn about this game. It's practically a whole culture in and of itself. I can see now how people can spend a whole lifetime honing their skills. Within the next few weeks, I'll be assigned to one or more chess clubs at different schools, spending an hour or two after school teaching K-8th graders about capturing pawns "en passant," and the "kiss of death" checkmate. Woot!

Hey everyone!

Once again, I'm sorry for dropping off the face of the earth. It's been a busy summer! I spent 2 months volunteering as Summer Staff at Young Life's Mountain Lodge, where I met a bunch of cool people, washed a few thousand dishes, hiked, biked, and boarded some pretty cool mountains, kayaked and swam in some lakes, and got a tan!

Some of my favorite campers and I on the Rubicon Trail at Lake Tahoe

The awesome Mountain Lodge staff on top of Castle Peak, a brutal but awesome climb!

Then I came home and hung my first art show in Sonoma at the Barking Dog Coffee shop. It was fun to see my drawings up on the walls! (If you want to see what those drawing are, check out my art website on the links to the right). Then I ran off to King's Canyon National Park for an awesome family camping trip. We went white-water tubing and hung out with a mother black bear and her two cubs. They seemed to think our campsite was the new Denny's or something. It was a blast!

Then, last weekend, I had an "artist demonstration" at the Red Wolf Gallery on the plaza here in Sonoma. I spent two afternoons with my artwork and a table set up out in front of the gallery, explaining my process to curious passers-by and showing them all the steps that go into the drawings that I do. It was fun! I met tons of interesting people, and sold a ridiculous amount of work! I was completely blown away by God's grace in that area. I chose not to have a job this summer, and for the past few months my account balance has been somewhere around $20. I didn't know where money for next semester was going to come from, but I figured, hey, there's always student loans.

Then this weekend came. I wasn't expecting too much; if I sold a few cards to some pitying customers, I figured it would be worth it. But no! I sold dozens of cards, prints, and 6 of my originals, coming to a grand total of over $700!!!!!!! I still don't know what to do with myself, I'm so flabbergasted!

Here's one of my newest drawings. That was another bonus of the demo: while people were asking me questions, I got to get some good work done!

So! Now you're caught up. Like I said, it's been quite a summer. I have a reception for my art show this Friday, then I have to take everything down, pack everything up, and head back to school on Sunday for my senior year! Crazy!

Whew!

Sorry to everyone for dropping off the face of the earth for the past 3 weeks! I haven't been able to have internet after all, so this is the first opportunity I've had to get away to a coffee shop with free wireless. We have a break in between sessions right now, so I'm going to spend some serious time chronicling my adventures, and then post it and pictures all at once. That's my goal for today, so updates are coming soon!

And away we go!

I'm off to YoungLife's Mountain Lodge in about 3 hours! Woot! I'm really excited to go. I'll have internet access up there, so watch for more updates detailing my adventures!

Long overdue

Since half my audience (this means you, Kylene) needs an update, I thought I'd better write one. (Sigh...) It's rough being at the mercy of your fans. :-) I've been amazingly busy, however, considering I'm not in school and I don't have a job! Lots has happened in the last few weeks. My fledgling art career is, well, still fledgling, but we're making progress! I designed greeting cards based on the drawings I've been doing, and they have been selling pretty well. Three stores in Sonoma are currently stocking the "Endpapers" line, and I'm looking to expand my radius a little into the neighboring towns. I'll be featured on the walls of the Barking Dog coffee shop in August, and an upscale consignment store has agreed to showcase a few of my originals while I'm away at camp. It's all very exciting, if not very profitable. The cards are a small, but comforting trickle of cash, but the cost of framing all my drawings was something I kind of forgot about. I did find some great frames at Target, though, and they look really nice. (Don't tell anyone that's where they came from, though--my profs would be shocked!)

I took a framed sample around to some of the local galleries and asked what they thought of the framing and how they would price it. They were very enthusiastic about my work (which was encouraging) and quoted prices that were double what I had planned on charging (even more encouraging!). It's hard for me to imagine someone actually paying money to put my stuff on their wall, much less a lot of money. It was interesting talking to the gallery owners about their experiences selling art. In their experience, when people don't know about the quality of an item, they rely on the price to tell them. Thus, if I underprice my drawings, they may actually sell less than if I overpriced them! We settled on $85-$100 for each framed original (which still sounds astronomical to me--I certainly can't afford to spend that much on art), which is a good deal less than some of the prices that were suggested to me. I hope to sell a lot of them, but I can always take what's left with me back to school and put on a show there.

I leave for camp on June 8th, and I'm getting pretty excited about going. Before I go though, I'll be heading to a John Mayer concert in San Jose with my friend Rachel thanks to the free tickets I won off the radio last week! You know those cheesy "caller number 9" deals. I just happened to be listening when they said "Call now!!" and I did, and I won! Woohoo! It's going to be AWESOME. In the meantime, I have 20 or so drawing to frame....