Diane’s World

First of all, I made a new “waffle experience”

Here ya go  (click pic to make big):

This semester has sped by… very quickly.

So much has been learned though:

…to live with very little money and an expensive major

…to cope (better) with anger and learn to bite my tongue.

…to enjoy being single just as much or even more as having a boyfriend.

…to have a quiet heart on the inside, though I may be a busy person on the outside

…to stop thinking about myself just to reach out to another person for a while
…to accept rejection.  Actually, to embrace rejection. Yes - I’m truly serious.

…to do homework on a Saturday night without feeling like I’m an anti-social freak.

…to be a little more emotionally stable… I think.

…to keep my inner mind to myself. These days it’s very hard for me to open up to somebody compared to two years ago. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.

Photography II, Painting, HPER, Graphics III, Advertising, and all my end of the year RA inspections are all done.

All I have left to do is take that art history test - the one  I’ve already tutored for over 23 hours.
This has been the easiest Finals week I have ever had… but maybe it’s because of the three studio classes that were all due the week before finals.

Elbert sent me these pictures he took earlier on in the year of me - they show me in the place where I have spent well over 100 hours in the past four months:

I am going to be on severe painting withdrawal during christmas break… that is unless Sarah has me doing some for her kid’s room?!?! (yes?)

Speaking of painting… if any of you happen to be rich and generous (muwhahah!) GO HERE AND BUY ME STUFF!!!

Yup… this a wonderful $200 of paint that is in my near future. I know… don’t all rush at once to buy all my expensive art junk.

Anyways… I don’t really know what else I feel like saying…  but…

I’LL BE HOME IN UNDER 48 HOURS! (woot!)

love, Deedles

PLEASE PRAY FOR:

*My friend Amanda is having knee surgery on Wednesday

*The Kooima Family as Christmas approaches…and other people who are having a difficult holiday season. Sometimes we forget about grieving people after the first few weeks of a death, but we need to continue to show love and support, and pray continually!
*Dordt students as they finish this semester and traveling mercies for the way home from school

*The Dordt students who are doing mission work in Nicaragua and the Dominican over Christmas Break

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I have a feeling that I’m recycling blog lyrics titles. I need new music. Anyone want to give me Sufjan Steven’s “Michigan” cd?

Ok there is a lot to cover in this post. I was even exclusive! I took out a lot of potentially interesting stuff just so this post wouldn’t get to boring! I know… I lead quite the exciting life.

PS - If you read my brother’s blog as well, sorry for some repetition.

1) My brother showed me this site and I nearly popped a lung from laughter.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO WITNESS THE FUNNIEST THINGS EVERRRRRR!

Yes, my brother and I make amazing elves.
2) Ok, what’s with all the natural disasters going on in Washington? First, we get snow (weird.) Then we get flooding. Now… A WINDSTORM?

See my brother’s blog for all the crazy pictures… and my personal favorite thing - how a washingtonian survies life without power… and a coffee maker.

And that’s not all - our old fence fell down. Well, it was getting old. Again, do visit my brother’s blog to see the craziness.

3) I am now the very proud owner of a Sam Guttierrez Linocut Print!

If you look carefully in the background, it has the words “my god, my god, why have you forsaken me?”

I was really attracted to Sam’s ability to portray the pain that Christ suffered. This isn’t an easy piece to see.
And I really like how this print has a very German Expressionist feel to it. Here is an example of a german expressionist crucifix:

Amazing. I will own this piece of artwork for a long time - it will be a prize piece of my art collection.

4) After a suggestion from someone that my desk was getting kind of messy, I decided to clean it out. I found some old drawings in my school note books which made me chuckle.

Whenever people ask me where I get the ideas for my art - here it is:

YES - YOU are looking at the very first moment I concieved these ideas that later became pieces of artwork:

turns into

turns into

turns into

and

turns into

Maybe that shows some of the process… but I thought it was rather interesting.

5) I AM DONE WITH FOUR OUT OF MY FIVE CLASSES! NANANANABOOBOO!

Actually, I only have one final on finals week.

But then again, I had three portfolios, a presentation, and an exam.

And portfolios take more time and effort than the other two.

So I’m not lazy… just an art major.

6) For my birthday my sister, Sarah, gave me this book:

After taking Contemporary Art History, I have become more and more attached to this book. When I first got it it was cool… don’t get me wrong. It’s just now I flip through it and I can tell you something significant about more than 3/4ths of the artwork in it.

I even put a sticky tab on every artist that I know pretty well and it was a lot:

Thanks for this book, Sarah! I absolutely love it! I think I’m taking it home with me because it’s kind of hard to part with it.

Ok… I’m going to stop there. I forgot what else I was goign to say, and it’s definitely bed time for me.

But before I go, I want to remind you to…

- Pray for students taking exams - especially freshmen since they don’t know what to expect, and seniors who are graduating early since this may be a hard time for them.
- Pray for people affected by Jon Kooima’s death (I know it seems so passe, but this family will be needing so much prayer around this time)
I’ll be home in less than a week!

Love, D-Marie

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Ok first of all - “Fix You” by Coldplay is one of the greatest songs ever. I made a playlist of songs that have made me cry, and this song made the list today.
For the curious ones, here’s the list so far:

1. Fix You (Cold Play)
2. Cheers Darlin’ (Damien Rice)
3. Transatlanticism (Death Cab for Cutie)
4. Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley)
5. Left and Leaving (The Weakerthans)
6. More Like the Moon (Wilco)
7. Everything (Lifehouse)
8. When Peace Like a River…it is well with my soul - you know, that one hymn.
Yeah. Odd mix - but there’s a reason for each one.

ANYWAYS. You may be wondering why they heck I am posting at 3:30 in the morning. Welp - I just got back from painting. Yeah. The art majors get special permission to be in the classroom building past locking hours.

Ahhh… the bitter sweet life of an art major.

And I’m finally ready to unveil my self-portrait. Here it is:

(drumroll)

It’s not completely finished, but it’s done enough that I will turn it in for the critique. It’s title is “Pulse; a self-portrait”.
For the curious:

The yellow texture is made from wood glue and joint compound chunks

the tubes and the crackly purple part is made out of joint compound and elmer’s glue

and the red texture to the heart is made out of paper towels, elmers glue, and a gloss finish (so it always looks moist even though it’s completely dry)

Haha. You never knew all this stuff could be used in artwork, eh?

Well we happen to have a very expermental class. People have used the following things in their artwork

elmers glue
paper towels
pieces of metal with bullet holes in them
t-shirts and jeans… and other random pieces of clothing
beeswax
joint compound
dirt
dried paint peeled off of a palette
rope
newspaper
wood glue
clothing tags
manilla envelopes
pencil
feathers
mugs
Joe was thinking about stapling some Sweedish Fish to his canvas at one point…

Yeah crazy. I know.
Yes. Well “Pulse” is very much so a self portrait. Dwell on that for a while. I’ll be impressed if you were able to understand why I chose this subject. If you want to tell me what you think I’m trying to say, that is very useful. So give it a try.

Anyways, life has been funny.

1. Not much sleep recently. Nope. Not much at all. Surpisingly energetic despite this.
2. Already finished with three of my classes for the most part (Advertising, graphics III, (almost) painting, and my HPER course).. Art History and Photography II are the only two I am concerned about.

3. Had the funniest bowling experience. Went to lemars with Carmela, Dave P, Andrew K, Eric, and Pug. It was a blast - and I usually hate bowling.

4. I got paid. YAY!
5. I go home in almost exactly a week. YIPPEE!

6. I have amazing friends. I’m going to miss Dordt during break.

Ok. Sleepy time (Finally!) I must go to bed. I have an 8am class tomorrow, and I’m still covered in paint so I need time to scrape it all off.

Love ya!
Deedles

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Hee! Radomnosity!
1. LOOK OUT DENVER, HERE I COME!

I’m a PLIA leader for Spring Break again! Me and Andrew Tacoma will be leading a group to DENVER COLORADO! I’m very excited! Our team will be mainly involved with painting and construction, and it will be impossible for us not to have a great time.

Most importantly, WE WILL BE IN DENVER! AHHH! MOUNTAINS! WESTERN SIDE OF THE USA! (Doing happy dance!)

2. Speaking of Happy dances, I just saw the movie “Happy Feet”. I smiled, laughed, and cried the whole time. It is a wonderful movie - despite what everybody else says about it.

I plan to buy this movie for my nephews someday when it comes out and I have enough money. But under one condition - they let me watch it as much as I want. I want a penguin. Anyone want to go to the zoo?
I highly recommend this movie to anyone that wants to be a kid at heart again… this will definitely make you grin like an idiot.

3. Oh yeah. I chopped my hair off. A whole 6.5 inches. There was more hair chopped off my head than left on… so pretty dramatic. However, It only feels naturally good to me.
I would post a picture, but I feel stupid taking a picture of myself.

4. Dead Week next week!

Actually, this is the first time ever I’ve felt completely calm about finals week. I think I have this one under control! We’ll see if I am saying that in a few days… but for now I feel good.

Except… I think I’m getting sick. NO! Not now! Actually… it feels like an allergy attack. Huh… must be a lot of mold in our room or outside.
I AM SO EXCITED TO GO HOME!!! SOOOOO SOOOO EXCITED! After four months of being jealous of everybody that either gets to go home for thanksgiving/tri-state or have their family visit them at Dordt, I get to go back to the best state in the world to the best people in the world! And the longer absense makes me even more excited! (More happy dancing is going on over here).

5. It’s not done yet, but I’m working on my Portfolio website (my last project for Graphic Design III). I love how it looks, and I finally learned how to make grunge!

To view the UNFINISHED site, go HERE. The fine arts and Photo categories both have some stuff in them.. the rest are broken links for now. But yes, I made the grunge border all by my self.

6. Someone played the funniest prank ever on almost every room in east campus - they came around at 4:30 am… and stole everybody’s FORKS. Yeah. Forks.

And that’s not all - they then hid the forks somewhere in the room. Many people are finding theirs duct taped underneath their kitchen table. Luckily for my room, all the forks were dirty and in the sink so they didn’t bother stealing ours. hooray. I never thought anything good would come out of being a lazy dish doing room.
And now for a few things that made me smile very much this week:

My dad sent me this and told me that it reminds him of me: (You have to click on it to see it bigger)

My dad also sent me this that made me laugh a lot: (really. watch this… it made my day. Especially when the white reindeer starts singing)
http://badaboo.free.fr/merryxmas.swf

Actually, my dad has been sending a plethora of interesting things lately… huh. Thanks Dad!

Welp, I better continue on with homework so I can remain happy and ready to go back to my  home in Washington.

D-Marie

5 comments

Wow I’ve been posting a lot lately.

Well… get used to it. Here are some random thoughts:
1) Have you ever eaten microwaved speghetti noodles? It’s something I did when I was little - the results are rather interesting - kind of like unsalted pretzles. Ok, I know. I’m weird.

2) I’M FAMOUS!

Where have you seen this picture?:

Yup! Denis Homepage - the news! I, along with Shawn Voss and Rachel Clemens, were the priveledged few who got to jury in the Dordt/Northwestern show. It was a lot of fun and a very VERY interesting experience. I gained a LOT of incite.

I don’t want to bore you - but a few things I learned (Skip the italicized stuff if you hate art talk):

a. Dordt and Northwestern… though only 15 minutes apart - have COMPLETELY different yet distinct art tastes. Smokies. It’s insane.

b. Dordt and Northwestern also have different ways of deciding what was GOOD art. I’m still processing what exactly it is… but I think Dordt is more interested in the conceptual, and Northwestern in the formal. Don’t quote me on that yet though.

c. Northwestern makes a lot more 3D art then Dordt… and Dordt makes a lot more 2-D art than Northwestern. 

d. Northwestern is more interested in doing studies of past art movements (doing art in the style of a certain artist). Dordt tends to look down on art that is a copy of already done art. (I’m a little hesitant to say this as well)
To hear me and the other jurors talk about this for a short short time, come to the Campus center art gallery at 7pm on Thursday!

3.  I have a hall event tomorrow. I made a whole bunch of food: here is what I made:

I hope all goes well. Building events kinda intimidate me.

4) Amanda and Jason came over to help make christmas cookies and to have a fun time. Here are some pictures:

Haha… this was fun.

Cookies that even Jason can’t chop the heads off of:

Frosting cookies Pollock Style. Count an art major to think of this. Yes, the table was lots of fun to clean up afterwards. No, not really.:

5) I’ve been having a rough week… especially emotionally. I don’t feel like explaining on a public blog, but I can use some good friends in my life about now. Yeah.
6) DON’T FORGET: Pray like crazy for the following people!!! ->
Pastor Rod Gorter: Campus Pastor, especially as he goes to California tomorrow for the funeral of Jon Kooima. He’s been doing an exceptional job at comforting our hurting campus
Tim Kooiman: Jon Kooima’s RA, who is also flying out to California tomorrow. He’s an amazing man of God and he’s going through a lot.
Jon’s Parents, Siblings and other friends and family

Jon’s Friends, roommates, the people who saw Jon collapse, people who are reminded of losses in their own life, the engineer majors, the KSP kids, Jon’s prof’s, pastors, Jon’s PC group, and anyone else affected by Jon’s death.

PRAY WITHOUT CEASING! The funeral is on Thursday.

7) Ok. Tonight is Sinterclaus - the dutch tradition where the kids put their shoes outside their door and santa fills them with treats. I am celebrating this with my building, so I have a ton of shoes to fill.

Sleep tight, y’all!

Diane

1 comment