Artsy stuff!

Being here, doing tons of reading and writing, has really opened up my creativity! I've been keeping up with my blogging, writing lots of poetry, snapping lots of photos and even drawing! I've loved to draw ever since I was little. In middle school, I had to choose between dance lessons, piano lessons and art lessons. I chose art, almost instantly. Mom suspects it's because are comes more naturally to me. She's not wrong.

I love to go dancing with my friends. I enjoyed being in the tap-dancing play in college (Stepping Out), and learning the dance routines for other plays and music programs in school. I also got a kick out of dancing for competition cheerleading, and I wasn't half bad. The thing is, I had to practice twice as hard as the other girls.

As for music, I thought I was bad at playing the piano. Actually, according to Mom I was average. I just thought I was bad because I was used to things coming easily to me. Playing trombone was a little better, but I never really felt confident at it. I adore singing, especially in a group, and I'm probably above average, but I feel so vulnerable when I sing alone.

With art, you can take as much time as you want to tweak things, but I'm still a perfectionist about it. I get frustrated, because what happens on the paper so rarely matches the picture in my head. The thing is, I'd forgotten how much fun it is. When I first got to New York, I used to do all these crazy doodles. I feel like my old job just sucked so much creative energy out of me and now I'm getting it back.

Along the left side of this entry, you can see two photos that turned out awesome: one of a butterfly and one of a broken sink dial (tap? It was to show my landlord the problem, but it turned out so cool!), and two recent drawings: a hummingbird and a girl. The hummingbird started out as an ink drawing I scribbled between classes. Later I filled it in using oil pastels. I thought Grandma Carm might like it. The other is a pencil drawing I did yesterday, just for fun.

My art skills need a lot of practice, but it's a nice start. I hope you're having a creative time, too!