It is about time for a change!

Welcome to the Maritimes & Get out those Mitts!

Its getting colder out, the air is more crisp, and the layers just keep on adding. Most people dread the day we get our first snow fall of the season, others dig out our winter hats, mitts and helmets to get ready for a new year of winter sports. Whether it is snowboarding, skiing, hockey, or curling, the winter brings some exciting activity's to keep you motivated and healthy. I myself have grown up downhill skiing. Ever since I was a young toddler my family had taught me and encouraged me to stay active even through the coldest months. Skiing became a large part of my life as well as my family's. Each week-end I go up to Ski Wentworth to get a few runs on the slopes. To me this is a great way to clear my head, relax, enjoy the out doors and still get some exercises. A few years ago I started coaching young racers in a program called "snow stars". I would coach young children different techniques and ways of downhill racing. These young racers were always eager and excited to hit the snow and the passion from these kids were unbelievable, the cold air never bothered them as along as they were having fun. What I wonder is where along the way do we lose this excitement to try new things and get out of our comfort zone. Winter should be just as exciting as summer, colder yes, but still so many different activity's and sports to get involved in. After a long day out in the snow, a hot chocolate or cappuccino by the fire is well deserved. This is what I call Winter!!
:)
My whole family

Too much work and soo little time....

So that past few weeks I have noticed how stressfull and negative our lovely little art school can be. The pressure of large assignment, dead lines, quality and quantiy of work. All these little things pile up higher and higher untill you get to the point that you just dont care anymore, not that you dont care sorry, more like you just can handle it. You push your self harder to try and complete these tasks, but during this time, I really feel some Profs are not aware of this stituation, Put there class above all others, as if it was the only class we take all week long. I find this very stressfull. I want all my classes to be equal and not have to pick and choose which ones to work my but off in. while the others fall through the cracks. People always say, manage your time, be organised, do not procrastenate, but is it even possible to commit your self to that much work, time and effort? is it possible to do your very best on every little thing with such little time, and soo much to think about? the hours assigned out of school for each class, do they over lap other hours for other classes?? This is what I wonder if profs even think about. No that im saying they should not give out homework, just be understanding of the amount of workload that is possible to complete in a weeks time. and also some people do have lives out side of school, this i am not willing to give up. School does come first over partying, but you always will need that little bit of time for yourself to un wined!!!

A Small Town Girl Story

This short story is about a small town girl named Lisa. Lisa, the adventures type, moved to the city Halifax to build on her passion of photography. The big city, was everything she has always thought it to be, and even more. Exploring parks, night life, and avenues, she had many different subjects to use for her inspiration for photography. This young strong female, started to become very successful in her carrier of photography, to the point that everyone knew her work and was quite popular. Her images were the best images and one have ever seen of the "big" city. As the famous life of Lisa continued she felt like something in her life was missing, but what? she had accomplished her Goal..... to be continued....

Why hate on Bateman?

Just a quick little question, Why is it that many people from nscad dislike Robert Bateman's work? I think he is absolutely brilliant and would love to be able to understand his concept and style and be able to do that myself. When asked last semester in a paint class of mine, who is my favorite painting artist, I then said Robert Bateman. The response to that was very negative. Why is it? Is he not contemporary enough, is his style boring? well to me half the stuff we had been studying was not very interesting to me. It was all very similar, cookie cutter contemporary work that did not really interest me at all.

A little Insperation from Chuck!

Chuck Close is an American Photorealism painter. His early work consists of many large scale paintings done of a variety of portraits. His work is mostly done in stages, first a low-resolution grid of squares is created by his assistant. He then grids his Photograph reference and goes from there. Unfortunately Close had his catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 which left him severely paralyzed. During this time he continued to paint using his teeth to grip on to his paint brushes. A few years later Close slowly developed movement back in his arm and legs, enough to paint again by strapping a cast like device to his arm, which would hold on to his paint brushes. Since the accident, Close’s paintings and style changed, the movement and detail became much different. His new style consisted of bold colours, in circular motions through out his grid system on his large canvases. Each cell of the grid is very obvious by the defined shapes, with a CMYK colour style. From a distance the large paintings come together creating a finished, detailed, photorealist painting.

Check out Chuck Close's work at : www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/

first post

As my first post on my Blog, I would like to share a few thoughts and ideas. First off during my two years of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University I have discovered a whole new look and way of art, These classes were very open to different styles and different subject matter as long as it all followed assignment guide lines & layouts. Each student/class mate had their own individual style and were soo unique in their own ways. To me this was a great learning experiences and a great way to pick up skills, techniques and ideas! As well as build up my own style, or to find out what my style really was.
I had then transfered to NSCAD University, thinking this would be a great opportunity's to pick up some courses that interested me, that were not offered at Mount Allison University. Given the expectations of a exploring art school, I thought this would be a way to expand on my knowledge.