Losing Weight?
Went up north to visit my sister and to try out bridesmaid dresses. Her wedding shower went okay but it lacked a lot of the decorations and excitement Amelia's had. I wish I had a present for Rachel but she doesn't want anymore art right now. She wants me to buy her a vase from her catalog registry online and I'm too ashamed to tell her I don't know where or how to access it.
Going up north was great for seeing old friends, hanging out with Joel, and catching up with my beloved elders at the MIAD library. T (yes that really is his WHOLE first name given to him by his parents), told me its better to just follow my gut when it comes to my own education and dreams. He told me to stop worrying so much about the future versus the now. I really do want to go back to college but I don't think my reasons are very good. I miss the art atmosphere, I'm severely curious about the kinds of classes I could take at the masters level and I want to focus on painting and drawing in a critical way; a way I've never learned before. Of course I'd love to take some ceramics courses and finally learn how to throw clay. I want to brush up on my Illustrator skills (the program) too. I've been painting and working on illustrations using Illustrator but I'll be the first to say they aren't much to look at.
Recently I've been guiding Rebecca along a mini artistic education. She's very cocky and lazy and doesn't think she needs any improvement but I find her skills at a much lower level and in need of far more work. She has no attention to detail and rarely finishes any of her paintings. While I may take a long time, despite actually being quite fast, my pride lies in knowing my final execution leaves no error. I also know this is my largest issue as a freelance illustrator. My clients do not know what they want and I spend more than half my time in meetings with them trying to decipher what they'd like. If I were a teacher in illustration, I'd split up the students, have them write down an idea for an illustration and give it to another to execute. Not only would the idea be very different with the interpretation, but some students would be very disappointed or very excited about the final results. It's be a very good introduction into the subjectivity and variation of ideas that appear in illustration. But I've deviated from Rebecca. She has great talent for illustration, water colors, and drawing cats. There is raw ability but its been shaped to think she's amazing already by winning small awards. Granted I take this view from years of people telling me I have talent, yet never winning awards, so I don't really believe in them unless there is a monetary award involved. She could truly BLOSSOM if she went to art college. Her financial background is terribly poor and she isn't willing to apply for the scholarships that could help her. The defeatist attitude makes me so sad. I want her to succeed, but as I've learned over the years, I cannot help anyone. I can only advise and support them (with a fair bit of nagging).
On the losing weight front I've gained back three pounds. I blame going up north for that. It's very hard to stick to a diet with everyone saying, "you're on vacation, it's okay". But it really isn't okay. I weigh 175 lbs. That's 35 lbs more than I should weigh. My goal weight is 150lbs. It's still very early in my diet, which is a full year one, so I'm taking the experience as a hard lesson for when I'm up north for the wedding.
Oh and here is my bridesmaid dress:
It'll be grey and no black tights or black shoes. I was really sad when Justin told me he didn't like the dress on me, but I appreciate his honest opinion. I'm worried everyone was just saying I looked good so we could all get out of the store faster. Bridget, Amelia's best friend, drove me back after the dress torture, and I think honestly said she liked the dress on me. I still don't know. I thought I looked really good, and genuinely attractive in it but Justin's opinion weighs pretty heavily on that perspective. He has good taste in what he thinks I look good in. He loves my polka dot dress, for example. I'm proud of that because I picked it out on my own. I've never really spent money on clothes before.
My Uncle Dick sleeping on the grass. I was amazed that my hard working uncle could just plop down and snooze.
