Starting a New Chapter, Part 2

Being married is not the only new thing in my life these days.

I graduated from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in December with a B.F.A. in Studio Art and a B.A. in Spanish.
Before that, however, I had to put on a senior art exhibition last April. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
The goal of the exhibition series was to capture the electricity, connection, and love between couples. (You can see photos by clicking here by looking at the "Couples" album). With that goal in mind, I painted six different couples in a graphic, modern realist style. For months...and months...and months I dedicated my life to that. I even planned on continuing that style and theme somewhat in graduate school. That's where the chapter ended.

I didn't get into graduate school.

I was discouraged and knew it was time to turn the page. I will always love painting couples. I am painting them on commission now, but I needed something new to try.

For a while my mind had been firing off ideas. My brain kinda felt like this:

You know, one of those toys that randomly shoots out electric currents. Idea after idea constantly floated around in my head.

Not getting into graduate school was the push I needed to take a break and experiment with something new: abstract.

It is so freeing to finally do something  totally different...and be satisfied with it!

Here are my first two attempts:

 

This is entitled "Hope 1" (20x16" oil on canvas) and is about having hope in the future through God and Christ Jesus by the forgiveness of sins despite current events and hardships of the world.

This one is titled "Blue" (24x18" oil on canvas) and was more for the experience and technique than the message.

I like this direction. I plan on developing it more in the coming days.
Stay tuned, my friends!

Starting a New Chapter, Part 1

Since the last time I've posted I graduated from college and became a Mrs! Yep, I got married on January 12th to my boyfriend of four years and two months. Well, he was my fiance for ten of those months, but you catch my drift.
Let me tell you, it's been an amazing three months of marriage!
Here's one of my favorite photos from the wedding:

And another from the reception:

It's wonderful to come home to your best friend every day. I guess I got to marry the prince after all...

One of Tim's (my man's) many amazing qualities is how encouraging he is when it comes to my artwork and pursuit of creative achievement.  He is definitely my biggest fan...well he and my mom are tied for first.
He has allowed me to transform our apartment balcony into my tiny "studio," which gives me room to spread out and not worry about getting paint all over the walls and carpet. (Let's be honest, I get almost as much paint on myself and my surroundings as I do on the canvases sometimes.)
I know that someday he will buy me a house that has an extra bedroom that gets beautiful afternoon sun, has excellent ventilation, is big enough to hold all my art supplies and has a great view out of the large windows. Hey, a girl can dream right?

Until then, I'm happy just to be married to the love of my life giant studio or not.