Art.

So here is the thing. I am a self taught artist (meaning i never took classes apart from 7th grade and in high school which does not count as being taught anything) I enjoy painting but do run into the problem of feeling like i have no idea what the heck i am doing. I guess that is where many famous artists started out though right? They didn't know what they were doing but learned from simply studying others work. I posted a few pieces that I did a few years ago. I have not painted much since but will post a few news ones i'm working on soon. By being an art major, i have gotten the chance to work with different mediums i otherwise would have not gotten the chance to work with. Last semester i took a print making class which opened my eyes to a new way of doing things. It reminded me that there are other things to do besides paint and that there are so many things i can do with my love for creating. I could work in a print shop doing handmade invitations, work with book artists, and even work at a place like Hatch Show Print in Nashville. Oh the beauty of it all.

This next picture is a screen shot of a few things i'm working on in my Graphic Design Class. Last semester i realized there was so much more i could do with art and after being in my first upper level graphic design class this semester i've understood that even more. Im not going to lie. Working on the computer does not come easy for me, i'm not the best at teaching myself how to do things but am slowly learning and appreciating it. A few months ago i posted a blog about packaging design (the web site will give you an idea of what i mean when i say packaging design). It is somehting that has always facinated me. I am deffinently a sucker for anything with a beautiful lable. I always found myself wondering who it is that designs the things that make us buy stuff. I have a long way to go but i am loving getting to make advertisements and logos which were the reason i wanted to be a designer in the first place.

As a side note here is a picture of my pre valentines surprise. Matthew has sent me a letter everyday in the mail since February 1st. He purchased an old type writer and typed each one! Pretty thoughtful and sweet huh? i thought so.. He will be here in a few short days and with that my letters with stop. I say that as a good thing ;) I have a great Valentine.

February is for lovers?

So i am in love with the photo collages that 100 layer cake does (it is an amazing wedding blog that i follow.) This one on particular had my attention.

February is always filled with the theme of love. With all the pinks and reds and little hearts everywhere. Of course it is because of Valentines day but other than that why is the whole month filled with "love"? This of course has gotten me to think about love, what it is, and why we are so desperate for it. I am not going to try and answer that question in this entry. I am not going to write down a profound answer that is so thought provoking that i have a million replies. But i will say there already is an answer.. love is what makes us go crazy but it is indeed the one thing that holds all things together. Of course the reason is that God is love. He is the ultimate lover jealous for His bride. He is ultimately the perfect lover who satisfies the desperate need for love in the human heart. John 15:13 says "no greater love has no one, that he that lays his life down for his friends." That is what God did. Jesus died for us, and there is no greater love than that. My friend Emily wrote a song that says "how right they are to adore you, we rejoice, we delight in you." He is to be adored above all else. So many days i waste my time and do not give my first love the adoration He deserves. So in the month of February remember that.. with all the romance, the flowers, the hearts, and the love letters.. Remember the Lover of the world. How to love is found in Him..

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

1 corinthians 13:4-8

best friend blog.

Ok well, this isn't about my best friends blog. I just thought the title would be catchy if it went with my last entry. Any who. My best friend in the whole world Jessica Ryan Reeves just put up her art work on Etsy. She has only 5 paintings up there so far but she is such a talented artist that everyone should buy from! After coming to spend the night with me for a few days we were both inspired to paint more, make more, and sell more. Hopefully one day soon i too will be selling work on Etsy. The first image is a small glimpse of a painting she did a few years ago, and the 2nd is one of my favorites she has ever done. Enjoi!

Visit her Etsy shop here!

boyfriend blog.

So my boyfriend decided to start a photo blog. He bought a camera over Christmas to use just as a hobby. I wanted to share it with everyone! Matthew has a pure eye for beauty and creativity. Im always impressed with his work and ideas. He says he is not artistic.. but i be to differ. He has been traveling a few weekends to go to job interviews and he took these first few pictures while in Indianapolis. Hope you enjoi!

http://www.photoblog.com/opioneer/2010/01/24/

patient year.

After taking 3 studio classes at a time the past 2 semesters i've found it hard to stay excited about my school work. I get stressed out about my teachers expectations when i know they would love to see what i come up with no matter if i stayed in the lines of a traditional artist or leaned toward new ideas like the avant-garde artists. Im trying not to look at my projects simply as assignments or grades but as creative projects inspired by an assignment sent to someone else? We will see if this new strategy helps me stay motivated in creating.

Im finding myself asking "Why am i an art major again?" over and over and over again.

Im almost done.

One more year.

It will be a patient year at that.

Another thing running though my head over and over.. "patience.."

2009.

Im back. Back to life in Tuscaloosa. Back to the crazy neighbors on my right and on my left Mr Bill (who looks like Creed from the office and who listens to irish folk and 80's rock really loud on the weekends; sara and i think he works for the CIA). Back to classes. And back to long distance. Back to schedule.

I had my first day of classes today. They weren't as bad as i thought. My classes will be hard but i decided to look at it as a challenge, a challenge to stand up against. I usually let things that are hard get me down but ive learned from a certain boy to look at things that are hard for me as a challenge instead of a struggle.

This is one of the many things ive learned from him.

I said in my last entry that i would write an entry overview of 2009. Ive thought about it a lot and realized i do not have much to say about the year. I don't want to be be too negative because 2009 was one of the hardest years ive had in my life.

I will say though that some of my favorite memories happened in 2009 and so with that.. here they are..

Memory #1: Love

In February 2009 Matthew told me he loved me for the first time. It was super sweet...of course me telling the whole world this could be a little cheesy but it was kinda perfect actually and ill tell anyone. We were in Memphis staying with some of his friends and i got the flu REALLY bad. He took care of me by getting up every 4 hours in the middle of the night to give me more medicine and to make sure my 102 temperature would stay down. I knew it before he even said it because i honestly have never felt more love like that before by someone because of their actions other than my mom... He didn't even have to say it to me because i knew it but he did as i was falling asleep and ill never forget it.

Being in a relationship has taught me more about God than i ever imagined it would.

Memory #2: Surprises

In April Matt surprised me for my birthday by showing up in a refrigerator box on my front porch at midnight. I almost cried because it meant so much to me. I was having a rough week and didn't think id see him anytime close to my birthday. He's good at surprises when he wants to be ;) ( i say that because he tells me most of time im getting one)

Memory #3: road trips and the coolest couple on earth

In the summer I got to take a road trip to California with him which is by far one of the best times Matt and I have had together. We saw the coolest places. Met some cool people. And were both changed by the Toiegos who are a couple we worked with out there. God taught me so much through them.

Memory #4: Roommates.

Last spring Sara and I went with Davis Ann to her beach house for a long weekend. It was just the 3 of us in her amazing house and if you know anything about the beach in February/early spring its beautiful. We talk about that weekend being so great all of the time and i honestly cant tell you why. Its not because we did anything out of the ordinary and laughed all night. It was just perfect. Peaceful and refreshing. Most defiantly in the top 3 weekends of the semester.

Spring break in Dallas with Matt's family as well as many weekends with Erica coming over and moving in our house defiantly go in my top favorite memories of 2009. Hopefully 2010 will bring so much more. The start of it has already been good although i have my feelings of dread towards school. The past 11 days God has taught me so much. Matt and I have grown even closer than before and I have to much to look forward to in living with such great people here.

As much as im not ready I am.

oh P.S. Matthew had a job interview in Nashville last weekend. He finds out i 2 weeks if he got it. I think im more nervous than he is.

We will see.

:)

Artist of the week: The Temper Trap http://www.thetempertrap.net/Home/

2010.

Im laying on my bed listening to the most delightful mood fitting playlist ever.

(thank you Jessica Reeves and friends for helping construct a collection of music that flows together so well)

It is 2010 and it has been a good while (i mean a GOOD while) since i have posted an entry.

I think is about time i did so again.

I needed the break and think that it is now time again to write.

I will soon publish a 2009 entry but for now lets start with a short entry of my "not so much news years resolutions"

Im not the best at making resolutions and am not hard core about them because i know myself and i know i'm horrible at finishing anything but here are the things id like to accomplish in 2010.

1. Take a sewing class whether i go weekly or once this year i'm determined to sit down with a few old ladies to have them show me what they know in the sewing area.

(i got a sewing machine for christmas)

2. To volunteer at either the boys and girls club where Erica worked or visit a nursing home occasionally. I love old people but they always make me kinda weepy (not sure why) but i think it would be a fun thing to do.

3. Know God better. I mean this is a broad thing and something i should always want but really. I want a committed and undivided heart. And i know this goal will only happen with His help. I want to be a fighter of my faith.

4. Go to MORE CONCERTS. goodness. I sucked in 2009 at researching and getting myself to go.

5. Go on a road-trip with Jessica somewhere far away with little plans behind the trip.

6. Get a job by may. (lets see how that one goes)

7. Create more art. My own art. Not copies. And not class work. Be inspired by creation itself and go with it.

8. Exercise more? i mean really. I don't know if i want to even say that.

9. Have a committed night i hang out with friends outside of my house. (Davis Ann we are doing half wine half pizza every wednesday this semester right?)

10. Try to keep my room clean for more than a day. (this seems easy but its harder that it should be for me?)

Welcome back to the grammatically incorrect blog of Sarah Teague.

Last goal. Blog more.

mmm.

My best friend sent me this in an email today. 

I think it fits me. Or the girl who made it really made it for me. 

Mmm.

Ok so Its been a while.

Today i woke up not wanting to go to class. At all. I mean.. when do i ever but today the desire not to was stronger than normal. 

I put on my jeans (we are working in the wood shop today so have to wear hot clothes), a tshirt, my keds and off to class it is..

I arrive 5 min. early and our teacher walks in to tell us he has to cancel class due to maintenance that needs to be done in the metal shop. 

MMM. Best day ever. I could complain about the gallon of sweat that came off my body from walking to and from class but theres no room for that.

I had so many ideas of blog entry's to write while driving home from California. But of course 2 weeks later the ideas have diminished slightly.

But..

Matt and I drove from California to Texas in 22 hours. Took turns driving and were probably the nastiest people ever after spending 22 hours in a car, that half of the time didn't have a working air conditioner. It was good times. 

Really though. Good times apart from us not having an air-conditioner driving across the hottest part of the united states. 

I decided that we got abstraction from the Western part of the U.S. 

Well, sorta. That could be a controversial statement. Abstraction is a distorted view of something else. But i think you get what i mean. 

All throughout Arizona and New Mexico, there are shapes and shapes for miles. I guess you could call tress and stuff in the south organic and abstract? but theres something different about the mounds found in the desert that just scream it. The West has colors not found here. The land and the sky are literally made up or purples and reds. Its amazing. 

I got to oppportunity of driving early in the morning through West Texas. I've only heard horrible things about it but because there is nothing there.. it made my view of the sunrise spectacular. Literally... i don't know where the land ended.. the land is so flat and stretches forever. 

Just driving for hours, in the middle of nowhere has probably been one of the best parts of my summer so far.. Mainly because it was with Matthew and because theres just something about a road trip that just brings freedom.  Oh and the fact that it was across my native land.. since i am Indian and all...

It could be just the way i think but sometimes i think that my actions are symbolic for where i am. And i sometimes intentionally do things because i think its symbolic to where i am, what I'm doing, what I'm going though, etc.  That might be weird and not make sense but driving like we did this summer kinda describes my life right now. Explaining that could take a while. 

I feel different now than I did when I left for the Summer.

A good different.

I've learned so much the past 2 months. Ive learned about myself, about God, about the world, about relationships.. really about life in general. 

Ive learned that I am my own person. I have my own decisions to make, and my own experiences that i go through with God alone. At the same time. I'm just like everyone else. We are all sinners. I am a sinner. And a good one at that. I'm in need of a savior daily just like everyone. I'm in need of community and of dependence. A simple truth. But a good one that I'm sure I'm going to be reminded of everyday for the rest of my life.

Now for a few random things. 

I want to start a book club.

I have 5 books on my list already. 

I hung out with Davis Ann last night, she's the best.

Its amazing of the things that change in 2 months. How you can see how you, and your friends have grown just by being away from them a short time. I'm ready for her to be back here with me. The next year should be interesting. We are different today than we were yesterday and going into out last year of college should make it an interesting yet good time. 

I'm going to see Jessica this weekend :)

Shes gonna help me name my new car.. and teach me about my new computer. I'm excited. I always get a warm feeling when i think about going to Cleveland. Maybe because every other time I've been its been in the fall. And that makes me feel warm? haha i dunno. 

Matt's coming in 2 weeks. Anticipation makes the 2 weeks seem like 2 months. 

Anyways. God is good. 

I'm a sinner. 

He loves me. 

And that's good. 

hm. Now what to do with a day that i have no class?

Good day to everyone!