Art, Life, and Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, what are you doing after you graduate?

2007-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-07T23:09:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-09-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

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....

Sigh...

2007-05-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

You know, I haven't had a chocolate chip cookie in a long time. Really, I think doctors should prescribe them--they're very therapeutic. Especially making them, and eating the dough. I think I will go make some now. I'm sorry I can't share them with you. You could check out the updates on my art website to console yourself, though.

Yo! Check it out!

2007-05-10T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I finally updated my official artist website with pictures of my work and all, so so go click on the link and tell me what you think! It's meaganmoore.blogspot.com, in case you were wondering.

Home at last!

2007-05-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hooray! Finals are over, school is over, and I'm back home in beautiful Sonoma. I'll be hanging out here until June 8th, when I'll head up to Donner Lake to work at Young Life's Mountain Lodge as Summer Staff for about 2 months. I'm really looking forward to that experience! It's one of Young Life's discipleship/adventure camps, where there's only about 50 campers (instead of 400) and you take them to do all the good ol' outdoor adventures: hiking, mountain biking, mountain boarding, kayaking, low ropes-course-style team building stuff, the works!

In other news, a local coffee shop, the Barking Dog, will be exhibiting some of my art work in August! Also, several local stores are interested in selling some of my stuff in greeting card form. The whole thing is just getting off the ground, but the idea of getting any kind of money and/or publicity for my work is very exciting. Check my official artwork website for more details as they come.

In the meantime, I'm busy writing, drawing, reading, promoting my work around town, and attempting to get in shape before I head off to camp. Woohoo!

Finals are...

2007-05-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

...slow, painful death.

...almost over!

2007 Drama Awards

2007-04-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

This is me and my old roommate Allison at the Drama Awards last night. It's the APU version of the Oscars, complete with little golden statues called "Phillies" (after the founder of the Theater Program, Phil Nash.)

This is me and my friend Katie. She is an awesome, hysterical girl who was nominated for a few awards (though she sadly didn't walk away with any). She, along with one of my old Alphies, will be my neighbors next year. Yay!!!!

This is me and my buddy Tom, a.k.a. "Tommy Magic." He's a very talented amateur magician on the Drama Ministry Team, who came up with Allison and the rest of the team to perform at our church over Spring Break. As you can see, I'm one of his biggest fans (don't get any ideas...).

Hearing

2007-04-28T16:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I come away from a conversation feeling listened to, but not heard. There's this vague sense of frustration that my words are not penetrating, that there's some invisible fog, either in my brain or theirs, that is preventing our mutual understanding. My usual response is to say the same thing over and over again, just in different words, but it's usually about as successful as trying to open a safe by guessing random combinations.

It makes me wonder how people feel when they walk away from me.

It makes me wonder how God feels when He tries to talk to me.

It makes me wonder if there are different levels to all the senses. You can glance over an art piece, or you can dive in and really see it. You can rush through a meal, or you can sit and really taste it. We rush through our lives trying to pack in as much pleasure as possible, yet hurry and impatience seem to kill so much of the real thing. Somewhere, there must be a special demon in charge of Hurry.

The box of See's candy....

2007-04-26T20:52:00.001-07:00

...is gone now.

Muera la Modernism! Viva las Amigas!

2007-04-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

My old roommate and dear friend Allison and I are sitting at my kitchen table, a mostly-eaten box of See's candy in between us, doing homework. Well, we just resumed doing our homework after the question, "What is the point of abstract art?" turned into a 30-minute conversation about art and theology. We made some exciting new connections that I want to record before I go back to my homework and forget about them.

I was explaining some of the different kinds of abstraction and what they're about, and somehow we got into the term "modernism" and its different definitions in the theology and art worlds. The modern art movement marked a huge change in the way people thought about "art." It became more individualized and self-focused. The ideas of art as self-expression and art-for-art's-sake were introduced. Art became less connected other disciplines (history, mythology, the Bible, etc.) and became all about the next new thing. I went off on a rampage about how the modern art scene is so elitist and commercialized, that only rich, educated people can make it or understand it, and the definition of a true artist is someone who devotes their entire life to making whatever the heck they want (otherwise they're a "sell-out") yet happens to obtain fame and fortune along the way. I revisited my pet theory that all art should be like a good children's book--appreciable by almost anyone on the surface, but with lots of depth available for those with the knowledge and desire to look.

Then Allison talked about modernist theology, which she explained as the idea that it is possible to discover what the Bible "really means" by using tools of objective, literary exegesis to discover the author's intent, the context of the time, etc. etc. The core concept is that there is one "true" interpretation that can be reached if you know all the facts and are completely unbiased. Now, here comes the juicy stuff. She thought for a moment, and then said that really, that's a very elitist way of looking at the Bible, that only those with the right education really know the truth about God. (In fact, that's pretty contrary to Jesus' teaching--he usually wasn't too happy with the educated.) Meaning no blasphemy, but maybe we should look at it more like a good children's book....

But the fun doesn't stop! She read me this quote by this modernist scholar, Charles Hodge, who said: "The Bible is to the theologian as nature is to the man of science. It is his storehouse of facts; and his method of ascertaining what the Bible teaches is the same as that which the natural philosopher adopts to ascertain what nature teaches." And I thought, hey now! No one who has watched a sunrise, or seen the ocean, or hiked along the Grand Canyon could say that scientific facts are all that nature has to teach us. As true and necessary and valid as most of science is, it is not the only way of looking at things! A scientist, a poet, and a child would describe a rose very differently; does that make one or the other wrong? Can all their view points be true at the same time?

It seemed to me to be an example worth exploring about how God can be so many different things at once, or rather, seen in so many different ways at once. It's a slippery slope, and in the "post-modern" age, which is characterized, in both theology and art, by an abundance of different points of view, it's easy to fall into pluralism. But at the same time, God is so much bigger that the vision of any one person. How do we, in a culture of elitism and specialization, be open to seeing God in new ways while still separating the truth from the lies?

See's Candy is very inspiring.

She caves!

2007-04-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

It's true! I've held out as long as I can. I don't have a MySpace, I never update my Facebook profile, I haven't had an IM conversation since sophomore year of high school--I don't even like text messaging! But I've just had so much stinkin' fun reading about the adventures of my big bro, his beautiful, dishwashing* wife, and their wonderful, amazing, intelligent, adorable, incredible daughters that I thought, hey, maybe if I take 10 minutes now and then to type a little something, I can tell my grandchildren in 50 years that "back in my day, we had to use blogs to communicate across the country, and we liked it!"
So here I am, projecting myself into cyberspace. It is the week before finals here at Azusa Pacific University, and as an Art major, this is the busiest time of the year for me. I don't have a single test to study for, only about 12 different projects that need to be finished all at the same time! So really, I have no business being here, typing this. Whatever. College is supposed to be about losing sleep, right? I never procrastinate when it comes to procrastinating.
In other news, I sold my first piece of artwork today! Somebody actually gave me REAL MONEY for my art! Like, she handed me a check and said, "You give me those two little pieces of papers that you scribbled and wrote stuff on, which I will frame and put on my wall, and I will give you this little piece of paper that I scribbled and wrote stuff on, which you will take to a bank and exchange for actual cash, which you can use to buy nice things like food and gas and more paper and pens to scribble and write with!"
At least, that was the gist of it.
Needless to say, I am pretty stoked. Especially because the Barking Dog, a beautiful coffee shop in beautiful Sonoma, is interested in displaying similar scribblings there this summer, which would be absolutely amazing!
In other news, for anyone who might be reading this who doesn't know it already, I chopped off all my hair! Well, not all of it, but almost a foot of it. I donated it to Wigs for Kids, so somebody is walking around out there with a Meagan on their head! It's a pretty big change for me, but I love it, and, judging from the sheer volume of comments I've gotten, other people do too. (All except my Grandma, who wailed "Your beautiful hair! Wicked child, what have you done with it?" But she loves me anyways.) I'll try to remember to post a picture, but I'm really bad at stuff like that. Sigh. This will probably be one of those boring blogs that are all text. Visual suicide!
Speaking of suicide, I had better get busy on my projects. Only 2 more weeks of school!

(End of ACT 1. To be or not to be continued....)