where do you get your power?

The eve of Christmas Eve, away from home without the family this year. Strange feeling.

Started reading "Sophie's World" today. Got through the first couple of chapters and I am hooked. Reading about philosophy is beyond entertaining. Talk about getting the brain turning. There is so much in the world that most people don't think about, how many of the people in the world take everything for granted. All I have to say is don't take anything for granted, things will pass by faster than you think. Find some wonder in the world (from Sophie's World). Read the book if you get the chance, too.

in the christmas spirit

Well considering I am so far away from home and the holidays are fast approaching I decided that it was time to get my Christmas spirit flying and started (and completed) my holiday room decor.

A few string lights hang on the walls and as the center piece of it all, my outstanding Christmas tree that Rebecca helped me build up. This baby is a designer's dream tree: completely handcrafted out of good old cardboard, packing bubble wrap, paper ribbons, and the beautiful 20 count strand of lights wrapped around the whole thing to give it a nice glow.

Oh yeah, I do love Christmas. Time for a nice heiße Schokolade. Happy (upcoming) Holidays to all!

[ art update ]

Here are a few sketches I did on a couple train rides. I find it so meditative to sit on a train and look out the window watching the world fly by. Even at night when all you can see is an island of light emerging from the complete darkness of the night at each train stop, it seems surreal in a way. I can sit and listen to the people surrounding me talking about this and that (in German, of course), see them get on and off at the stations and disappear back into their world and life. This probably doesn't make too much sense but that is why I find train rides so enjoyable.

yes, i do realize i spelled "avoidance" wrong. i have always
been a horrible speller. thank god for spell check.. haha

Next is my newest print. Nothing too fancy compared to the last two, but I'm still working on my technique. The one I was hammering out on Friday, which I sadly couldn't finish on account of the school closing for the night, was turning out a great and had a slightly different feel to it. I'm going to be pushing a few elements here and there as more of these come out. By the way this one if a red beet for all who were wondering.

.. And then of course, there are my new face sketches. My style is progressing slowly but surely. I need to keep sketching one of these a day so as to show a true transformation in my illustrative look. This is such a great project to work on, I don't know if my excitement will end.

Enjoy!

Goslar

I joined the rest of the International students on a trip to Goslar on Saturday, which is located in the Hartz Mts. We went there to go take a tour of the old ore mines there and to visit the very well known, touristy, expensive, but seemingly magical Christmas Market going on there (in Germany I think there is a Christmas Market in almost every village no matter how small it is).

The first thing we had to do was catch our train to get to Goslar, the thing was the train was packed before it even pulled into the Hildesheim Hopbahnhauf. All 25 of us crammed into whatever cars we could get into and we all stood (or sat) in the aisle for the 50 minute train ride. What a great time that was. I knew that it wouldn't be much different for the ride back.

The mine at Goslar was a fantastic adventure to see all the depths that these people traveled to just to get some chunks of ore here and there. It was a very eerie place to be but a breathtaking sight all at once. Once done with the mine exploration everyone was starving for some good Christmas Market food, along with a delicious side of glühwein (a spiced hot wine special for the holiday season). It was an unbelievable Christmas Market but it was so packed with people, tourists and residents alike that it became very overwhelming. Plus everything at the market was quite expensive compared to other markets that I have been to.

Overall it was a fun adventure even if it came with freezing cold hands and feet and a few packed train rides. They definitely know how to celebrate Christmas over here.

faces passing by

So here we are again. Posting some more face sketches. I decided that I wanted to do a more official archive of this little project that I set for myself so I went out, picked up a sketchbook and started up fresh. Here are the three I have so far. Keep an eye out for more soon.

[[ once again comments and critiques are welcome ]]

siebdrucken

Here is some work that I have been printing off in my Siebdruck (screen printing) class. Our theme to work with is the agriculture of Hildesheim. I am working with the abbreviation of Hildesheim, the HI and the agricultural products that Hildesheim produces mixing them together in a typographical manner (so no, I am not saying "hi" with all of these prints).

I will throw up the outlines I'm working on for my next couple of compositions. I'm hoping to keep developing as I move from piece to piece so the viewers can slowly see how each once becomes more and more organic than the other.

Check them out and let me know some thoughts. Criticism is welcomed from all!

first print (experimenting a little) in the end it was a horrible print because of all the
things i messed up on, but it was a learning process for me for the latter pieces

first final print in the series, background got a little too dark and distracting

definitely my favorite so far. the onion. sadly i messed up on most of the
prints of this one and these are the only two that really turned out well.
thought i would mess around with different background color. preference?

^ proof prints in screen printing can be so beautiful.
hoping to do something with these compositions later v

p.s. please excuse the bad lighting in the photos. they were taken in my
room which doesn't have much of a light in the first place. i will be taking
more professional quality photos later toward the end of the semester.

yes, i am alive

Haven't heard anything from me in a while, huh? Well, I'm back in full force.

So I just got back from a 5 day stay in Berlin. One word,"Great." It was a really relaxing trip through-and-through. Not the average hustle and bustle that usually happens when taking a vacation somewhere.

I went with a really close friend of mine here, Rebecca, who has a sister living in Berlin so we stayed at her place for the week. Rebecca has also been to Berlin many, many times over the past 10 years so she knows most of the place like the back of her hand. The first thing she asked me is what I wanted to see. My reply to that was,"I'm not sure… I just don't want I see to be touristy." And so the adventure began.

We did do a few of the touristy things. Hopped on the train and went over to the National Gallery, saw Potsdamer Platz, walked down the main shopping strip, got mesmerized by the Dom of Berlin, and viewed the whole of Berlin from the top of the Reichstag dome. Then we did our non-tourist journey along the whole ride of "The Ring" circuit around Berlin, to the East Side of Berlin where the streets are as quiet as a small country town. Then we walked through the big Turkish market, and the HUGE flea market after that. We explored the Zentralflughafen and saw an art community that seemed to be separated from the world most of us are familiar with.

The people of Berlin are all beautiful. I'm not talking about in a superficial sense but in a sense that the people have so much to share. I wish I would have had more time (and nerve) to get into the culture of the Berliners. People from all around the world come to this city to see the sights but there are also those who have falling in love with the life in Berlin and have made permanent residence there. It makes this huge community of diverse and endlessly exciting people. I don't think I would ever be able to get bored in a city like that because as long as I kept my eyes focused on the details there is always something interesting happening. Then again, I realized on this trip that I have to keep my eyes open to all the details no matter where I am because that is when the beautiful parts of life emerge.

Overall a great trip. But for now I need to sleep.