It's been quite awhile

It's been awhile since I've posted. It's a tad discouraging when you know you're writing to an audience of 11 (according to the handy "stats" button, atleast). I'm not quite sure what percentage of that is from actual people and what percentage is from myself checking my own blog out. Atleast I know that one other person looked at this, since they were on some foreign server named "Opera." It's probably the same person that looked at my posts from Alaska. I'm on to you.

Anyhow, if you feel like making me feel somewhat better, why don't you go ahead and follow me. Perhaps even post a link on your blog. Or tumblr. Or Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Myspace. Okay, I just threw that one in there to see if you were still reading. I understand how inattentive Alaskans using Opera can be (I'm still on to you).

Anyway, I suppose I'll post some more one of these days and keep that loyal Alaskan satisfied.

I went to the beach today, oh boy.

Today was rather complicated. I spent the night at my friend Jenny's house, and in the morning I was presented with two options: go on a bike ride on a trail in Escondido with Jenny and her boyfriend Luis, or go to a bonfire at the beach with another group of friends. The minute I heard "bonfire" I knew that plan wouldn't work out. My group of friends aren't exactly experts at planning things, and bonfires require a level of preparedness. I mean, firewood doesn't just magically appear out of nowhere. Anyhow, I combined the two options by bike riding to the beach, which was very fun indeed.

And of course the only reason why I'm explaining this in the first place is to showcase the pictures I took:

We never really did stay long with the bonfire gang, but it was fun nevertheless. I wish I took more pictures, but my camera ran out of batteries (unsurprisingly). It's probably worth mentioning that we rode back in the dark through the scary streets of Oceanside, dodging rapists as we went. But despite the danger that lurked around every corner, I'm back safe to tell you all about it.

Okay, I really just wanted to display the pictures. For some reason I can't resist adding brief anecdotes here and there.

Last Christmas

Being in an art class allows every family member and close friend to assume that you will create a wonderful piece of art for them as a Christmas present. This unfortunate expectation forced me to refuse sleep for two nights in a row and another night a couple of days after that.

Let me explain.

I've always been one of those people who throws together some lackluster bundle of birthday nonsense thirty minutes before the party. I wish with everything in me that I could transform into one of those people who bought their gift two weeks before the party because "it was SO you!" Alas, I'm merely someone who recieves a lukewarm "oh, a gift card to Jamba Juice. Thanks!" from the birthday girl. Needless to say, Christmas isn't exactly a prime holiday for me.

That's why when I discovered that I could actually make some form of acceptable art piece, I was elated because I could finally avoid my gift-giving deficiency. Making four paintings can't be THAT hard, right? Wrong!

My stepmom expected me to paint this portrait of her daughter and grand-daughter. I spent half of the first week in my winter break attempting to paint skin tones and finally came to the realization that my attempts were hopeless. Also, smiles were difficult. Any wrong move could turn her beloved ones into portraits of axe murderers.

I decided to just try starting on my dad's gift. This was three days before Christmas since the rest of my time was spent on skin tone and smiles. I first did a practice round in my sketchbook:

Satisfied with my practice round, I started on the actual piece. However, that night my friends Emma and Sydney came over to spend the night. I allowed them over on the condition that they would help me finish my gifts. Instead, we stayed up all night running around my house and causing debauchery.

Don't get me wrong, it was an amazing night. It started off with Sydney, Emma, Jake and I meeting at Denny's, our normal hangout spot. On the side of the road, we found a shopping cart. Being good samaritans and caring for our community, we decided to return the shopping cart to it's destination, across town. And the only way to carry out such acts of service is by carrying someone in it.

Anyway, we came home from Denny's and discovered to our dismay that the internet wasn't working, no matter what we did. How were we going to survive the night? What would we do to entertain ourselves? I mean, before internet was created, people found ways to keep themselves entertained, right? I'm sure we could all huddle together and read a good book under candlelight. Or perhaps even complete a puzzle.

Well, after thirty minutes of attempting to get the internet working, we had to turn to alternative solutions. We basically drank vitamin waters, which had this mysterious way of raising our energy levels off the charts.  After finally abandoning my technology cave, we tried watching Pans Labrynth on demand. Then when our energy was at an all time high, we attempted to hallucionate according to the techniques located here: http://boingboing.net/2009/01/12/how-to-hallucinate-w.html. I think we did it wrong, and we didn't have the internet to refer to, so we just gave up on that. After long conversations and watching Natural Born Killers, it was already 5 am. We might as well go on a walk, we reasoned.

Here are some pictures Sydney took from that walk, from her flickr:

Oh yeah, we found a teepee. Isn't that something? 

When we came back, we attempted a bowl of cereal. Do you have any idea how hard it is to do anything when your brain is about to commit suicide from lack of REM sleep? Let me tell you. It is probably worth mentioning that by this time, it was now Christmas Eve. Emma was able to stay over for a nice family dinner, and afterward I knew I had to finish all my presents once and for all.

I believe that was what my blog post was supposed to be centered around in the first place.

Well, I decided to redo my gift for the stepmom and use a picture of her grandaughter for it. I made extra sure her mouth was closed to avoid serial killer syndrome. Here's the final result of staying up all night on Christmas eve without any sleep the night before:

They even framed it and everything. How sweet.

Now back to the blue faced stranger. I finished the face part, but I had this huge gap that I knew I had to fill up with designs. I was running out of time and I hadn't slept in like 40-something hours, so it wasn't really my best art piece. Anyway, this is what I came up with:

At this point I knew there was no chance of creating something new for my mom in time for Christmas. It was 4:00 am afterall. I just decided to wrap a piece from my art class that she's never seen before and give it to her as a gift. Unfortunately for her, I had to take back that piece to submit to an art show, and the only time she saw it again was at our school's winter art show and auction. The picture I have of it isn't very good and was taken before I went back and fixed the chin, but here it is anyway:

After wrapping and cleaning up, I was rewarded an hour of sleep before my brothers came in to disturb my slumber. I got some nifty things for Christmas though, and it was pretty fun overall. But if there's anything to be learned, it's that staying up two nights in a row while creating two art pieces is, in fact, possible. Also, returning shopping carts to their rightful owners is always the upright thing to do.

We Became Indians

So I went on my Sprinter expedition as promised, but we went to the Escondido mall instead. Unfortunately, the batteries for my camera died upon arrival, so all my pictures of that day were taken on a camera phone (an Alias 2, to be exact). As you can imagine, they are all pretty low in quality, but I suppose I can post some of the manageable ones.

Then, as we were aboarding the Sprinter back to Vista, we encountered some ska band. Jake (the young fellow in the pictures above) was nice enough to buy all their tickets since they were "literally stuck," even though he was later lectured by Seth (the gentlemen with the glasses) that he should be "selective with his charity." I don't even know if they went on the sprinter or not. They quickly dispersed when they saw a police car in the distance and were scared that their beloved friend had gotten arrested.Yes, I live in a city where this type of thing isn't even questioned.

I gave him a dollar on the condition that he would play for me.

Anyway, Sydney came back to my house, where we agreed to a productive night of photography. Out of nowhere we came up with the idea of a Native American-themed shoot (sorry that the title isn't politically correct). I had feathers that Sydney used to decorate the box of a christmas present (isn't she the sweetest?) and acryllic paint that could easily substitute for face paint. Here's the result:

Then somehow I figured out some cool thing with my camera.

This was the result of two people who love photography and are willing to deck themselves in Indian gear and spend 4 hours taking a total of 69 pictures and only settling on 13.

Safe to say, I had an awesome night.

Art, as I promised

By now, I might as well post some art. I only started doing art this year as part of my IB art course at school, so my collection is limited. Also, the teacher doesn't even give me back any of my art because it's always in some local art show, along with my classmate's art. So basically, I can only see my own art whenever I go to said shows. Ah, I digress.

Anyway, I managed to take a picture of the first piece of art I've ever done before it was taken away forever. The first project we did is called a synectic, where we had to combine two very unlikely things in one piece. When I scanned the list of ideas, I came across "anti-gravity" and "imprisonment." These seemed very similar to little doodles I was known for doing, such as these:

(If you couldn't tell, it was a birthday card)

Anyway, this basic concept lead me to create this:

                                                                                                                                                                       

 And that is how my first art piece was born.

Spring has sprung

Although I began spring break three days ago, the obligatory sleeping in and relaxation part of it has been postponed until today because of lifeguard training. That's right, I am now a lifeguard. That means I can charge you more money to watch your little angel while you go grocery shopping. That also means I can walk down the street and do whatever I want. It's unsafe to cross the street? Don't tell ME what's unsafe! I'm a lifeguard!

Anyway, I basically had to do lifeguard training because I got a job at the Wave as a lifeguard. I had actually wanted to merely sell stuff, but when I mentioned this at the job interview, my interviewer said "you know, I think you'd be good as a lifeguard." Of course, I didn't mention that I hadn't swam in quite a long time, and my swimming skills were actually quite subpar, and that I was more likely to cause drownings than prevent them, but I got the job nontheless. I even have a whistle.

Now that all that CPR nonsense is over, I'm going on a Sprinter adventure to Oceanside. I apologize if you don't live in southern California and have no idea what I just said, but in other words, I'm going on train-like transportation to a city located by the ocean (hence Oceanside) in order to take pictures and have fun with friends. I'll probably end up posting the pictures on here too, in order to fulfill the photography portion in my subtitle. Which means I should probably fulfill the art portion as well. Sure, why not.

A Brief Introduction

Why hello there.

My name is Kelsey. My interests include stumbleupon.com, various websites I discovered from stumbleupon.com, various websites I discovered independent of stumbleupon.com, and the basic art of stumbling upon things. I decided to create a blog months ago in order to delight you all with lovely little posts and whatnot. Unfortunately, I have yet to post anything interesting because I was unsure of how to start off a blog in the first place.

Anyhow, expect exactly what the headline says: art, photography, and brief anecdotes.


Oh, and a shoutout to my friend Sydney, who took the picture of me in my heading. Check out more of her pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30045145@N05/