Update on Going Back to College

I thought I would post an update about my journey towards going back to school (Boise State University) to get my bachelor's degree and applying for funds through Vocational Rehabilitation.

I have applied for admission to BSU and my transcripts from other colleges are in the process of being mailed to them. I have a student ID number, which is cool. After my transcripts/records have been transferred, I need to find out what my plan of education will be. I have no idea what classes I need to take to complete my degree.

After several cancellations due (Vocational Rehab's fault, not mine), I finally had my first VR appointment on October 27th. They are going to set me up with some doctor appointments. This is necessary to qualify me for rehab funds. My next appointment is December 17th. By then, they will have an idea of when I can expect some funding. My rehab counselor said that they can't guarantee that the funding will come by January 2009, when I want to enter school, but they will try. I have decided that whether I get the funding or not by the time I need it, I will go anyway--even if I can only afford to take one or two classes.

My counselor said that Vocation Rehab has more clients then they can handle and the government won't authorize funds to hire more rehab workers. So that causes a backlog of delays and red tape. It has been my experience that whenever the government is involved you can expect delays, red tape, and lousy management. I just have to be patient I guess--and pray a lot!

Portrait of Thompson Done

I just completed another portrait commission. Okay, it is 95% complete! I got an order to do two 5 X 7 original colored pencil portraits of a little 3 year old boy by the name of Thompson. I have posted the first completed portrait above. The second one is almost an exact duplicate of this, except the background color will be a little different. I just have a wee little bit to do on it, including the background color, and it will be done. My client wants it real soon, so I will finish it this week. She bought the frames for the portraits and gave them to me so I can insert the portraits into the frames and they are ready to go. Then comes the really fun part--my client picks it up and pays for it!

I am almost done with the other piece I have been working on--the "walking through fire" piece. That's a good title, I think I will call it Walking Through Fire. It is very different from what I've done before and so far it is turning out very nicely. I have to be finished with it my November 8th so I can display it at the Vineyard Art Gala. This piece is kind of my statement on what it has like getting through this 2008 recession/depression.

Preparing A New Piece of Art for the Art Gala

The "Leopard In the Tree" has been temporarily put on hold for a couple of reasons. First, the paper I was using was not good and I had to scrap the piece and start all over again. Sometimes when you decide to use a cheaper paper it is not always a good idea! I switched to a Winsor/Newton watercolor paper and it is working much better.

And second, I got inspired to do something else and I want it completed by November 8th for the big Art Gala fundraiser at the Vineyard.) Because this big Art Gala event is about healing through art, I decided to do a piece that illustrates a verse in the Bible, Isaiah 43:2. "....you will pass through the fire but the flames will not burn you." With the recession and all the scary job changes my husband and I have been through and loss of income, this verse pretty much describes my life this year! It is a representational/illustrational piece done in my usual realistic style. I think it is going turn out very nice. I will post it when it is done.

I am almost finished with one of my portrait commissions. The commission is for two 5X7 colored pencil portraits of 3 or 4 year old boy. They are going to be given out as Christmas gifts by my client.

Starting a New Art Piece--Leopard In a Tree

I have decided that I want to re-do my Leavenworth collage (see previous blog entry) and do it in a slightly different style. I think my version looks too much like a poster. I have an artist friend of mine (Lisa Marten) who does really cool collages with oil sticks and acrylic paint and I would like to try that. I will have to get her to give me a lesson.

Now that I have a more physically demanding part-time job at the Boise School District, I am pooped by the time Saturday comes. There is rarely anytime during the week for creating art. However, this weekend, I did start a new colored pencil & turpenoid piece of a leopard in a tree. This will probably take at least a month for me to finish because it is about 15 X 22 in size. This subject appealed to me because I have never done a leopard and the spotted pattern will be different from anything I've done before. Any animal with a pattern like that is challenging to do because it is easier to stylize it as a graphic design piece but more challenging to use a realistic style instead, which is what I want to do.

Leavenworth, Washington Collage

Today I decided to give myself an art day. Well, maybe not the whole day, but at least half the day was devoted to art. I did something different from what I usually do. I did a collage of Leavenworth, Washington. This is another art piece in a series that I am doing about my trip to Leavenworth last year. The entire piece is 14 X 18 and is too big for my scanner, so I have posted portions of it (above). This is a mixed media piece using watercolor, colored pencil and some acylic craft paint. Most all of the artwork on this is actually from Leavenworth and can be found on the buildings themselves. I took some of my favorite art from the signs, calligraphy, and wall murals and put them all together in a collage. I also included some quotes from a book I bought on Leavenworth that describes how it was created and documents the progress from start to finish. Leavenworth inspires me because it was a town that was dying when some people with a dream and not very much money decided to take a leap of faith and revive it, thus turning it into a beautiful Bavarian theme town that has become a very popular tourist attraction. It truly is a miracle town and proves that miracles do still happen.