A self reflection I wrote tonight for 2014, and life in general. Until next year, cheers.

My vocal cover of Tonight You Belong To Me. It's very shaky, and I have a lot of work to do singing-wise, but I've loved this song for years. It was fun to sing. :) Ukulele played beautifully by YouTuber: WorkingOutTheFingers

This morning, my friend Dan asked me if I wanted to accompany him to meet a well-known instagram artist named N.C. Winters. He had posted on instagram that he was doing a live-painting in front of Rhino Art Shop here in Encinitas. Very cool. We go to check it out, met N.C. himself and talked to him for a few minutes, then let him focus back on his painting. We were in awe with his work.


 Alongside N.C. were about 10-15 other artists working on their own barrels, along with a DJ playing inspiring tunes while they worked.




Afterwords, Dan and I grabbed coffee/tea, and Dan spoke with the person in charge of the Barrel painting event. Apparently they hold it once a year, and once the art is finished, they display them in front of the art shop for the year. Dan asked if he could be a part of it for next time, and the guy explained "Well? There's still a few hours left, and a couple barrels available if you want to do one now!" I convinced Dan to do it, and Dan convinced me to collaborate with him. So, we rushed home, changed into "whatever-don't-give-a-shet" clothes, grabbed our art supplies (spray paints, paint markers, etc) and rushed back to the shop. The man in charge showed us a barrel we could use, and we immediately started putting whatever on it. We had no plan. The event had started around 10-11am, was scheduled to end at 5, and it was already 3 when Dan and I began our bin! I was very intimidated, due to not being that great at spitting out artwork like no other. Dan, on the other hand, is fantastic at it. Either way, we were both nervous at first, especially with only having two hours to fill this thing. It was fun and exciting, none-the-less! And so, it begins:

And another "Talented Tuesday" is upon us - it was already a total success. For this week, I was inspired to draw an album cover from a new favorite band I found on Spotify called "In Hearts Wake". Their music has helped me immensely through the tough changes between my mother's passing, and other personal events. One of their songs "Wildflower" hits close to home and makes me think of my beautiful mom. My best friend.

Today is a very trying day. Today marks one month since my mother passed away. It's hard to get used to this new "norm", but I still hold on to her strength and courage that she so bravely possessed all these years.

I'm very spiritual. My mom was, too. Our family has a thing about feathers and hummingbirds. Before my mom passed away, she told us that hummingbirds would be one of her signs. The morning after she passed, my aunt, sis and I were sitting on our backyard patio set drinking tea/coffee. A hummingbird swooped around us and perched on a tree right next to us. It sat there for one-two minutes, staring at us. It was a very emotional and captivating experience. Truly beautiful.

Today, I woke up very depressed. My mom had been heavy on my mind for the past few days. I went to go eat at Jorge's, a mexican food restaurant. As I was walking on the sidewalk (and being oblivious to everything) I all of a sudden look down. My eyes immediately saw a big, bright and beautiful white feather. It has to be half a foot long, and was all by its little lonesome, smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk in front of Jorge's. I smiled big, got chills, and thought of my mom. I never find white feathers like this. I felt so lucky.

Thanks to my wonderful cousins, Heather and her wife Nataly, I have joined them in Talented Tuesdays where we devote to part of our day to becoming creative. I did a quick sketch. I need to dedicate more time in the art world because for a couple years now, I've been dry out of ideas or any motivation to create anything. Here is what I have chosen to do:

A t-shirt design I did for my adobe illustrator class. I used my wacom tablet which was very fun and easy to use on my macbook pro. With adobe illustrator, the brushes you can use are simply endless. Online, there are various kinds you can download for free. The more I learn from this class, the more I want to explore my creativity.

For this piece, I drew a wolf and named it Rooknox after a toon I play on one of my games. It didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it to, but I'm not disappointed. I still enjoy the outcome and hope to get better with more practice.

The Giving Tree rough copy. 

Downloaded some new digital paint brushes from Chris Wahl, and decided to play around with the brushes. It was a fast sorta thing, so nothing spectacular. Just abstract stuff. Trying to warm up some inspiration into art land again.

My cousin's wife, Nataly, is a phenomenal artist herself and creates these amazing beanies. I fell in love with her Skellington creations and get complimented all the time when I go out and about. If interested, visit her Etsy website to purchase one. You won't be disappointed, you'll be blown away. I LOVE mine. :)

I recently adopted a rescue german shepherd that I named, Soja, after one of my favorite reggae bands that have some pretty inspirational music. Soja has been a dream come true to me. I've grown up always wanting a German shepherd. He's incredible. Every time I look at him, I feel as though he popped out of a movie screen or from the TV show K9 cops, he's that stinkin' gorgeous.

Here's some photography of that handsome boy.

My midterm finals for Graphic Design: We had to create three abstract designs that convey a mood. There were many studies involved when doing this (about 100 designs). I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent in creating the designs, and never felt like it was homework. These were the top three chosen from myself and my professor: Hesitant, Calm, and Anxious

Some studies for my Graphic Design class that I've been working on. I'm having a ton of fun using Adobe Fireworks and Photoshop. There's still much I need to learn with design as it's a work in progress. This semester has been nothing but fun.

More art projects from my Art: Design & Color class, and Photoshop class. First two are the most recent: The Lion King one is a movie poster I created and painted for my Design and Color class. The second is for my Photoshop class where we had to create a magazine cover. Mine has my dog, Prissy (R.I.P little lady), as the model and a photograph I took of Torrey Pines State Beach in the background. The third one was a project for my Design & Color class by, well obviously painting many tiny dots to create the image. And lastly... a picture of me on the left side, and on the right, a warped picture of myself that I drew. Fun! This semester blew by so fast.

Happy Thanksgiving!