Bibliosphere

In high school, I took a number of semesters of poetry with Ellen Kort. She was a former poet laureate of Wisconsin, and she was a wonderful teacher. One of the most supportive teachers I've had. She passed a few years ago, but every so often, I remember this poem, and it gives me at least some hope. " Advice to Beginners " by Ellen Kort Begin. Keep on beginning. Nibble on everything. Take a hike. Teach yourself to whistle. Lie. The older you get the more they'll want your stories. Make them up. Talk to stones. Short-out electric fences. Swim with the sea turtle into the moon. Learn how to die. Eat moonshine pie. Drink wild geranium tea. Run naked in the rain. Everything that happens will happen and none of us will be safe from it. Pull up anchors. Sit close to the god of night. Lie still in a stream and breathe water. Climb to the top of the highest tree until you come to the branch where the blue heron sleeps. Eat poems for breakfast. Wear them on your f...

 So here's the deal. I used to go home in middle and early high school and sit at my desk and just creative. I made jewelry and painted things and played with wax molds and printing kits and all sorts of things I'd found at Goodwill and yardsales. I continued to create later on in high school and into college, but it dwindled as I got older. Grad school and mental illness took a lot out of me, and getting back into the arts, even just drawing, felt like a huge task. But, slowly, I've gotten back into crafting. I started easy, drawing. I did a few Inktobers (drawing challenge in the month of October), I started getting into visual journaling, and slowly began to get creative juices again. It was different than what I'd grown up with though. I was trained classically in drawing at the arts high school, drawing only from observation in many classes (although I branched out at home and in classes with a loose format). But I started drawing from memory, and it's mostly l...

 So something I have developed in the past few years is my art style, and primarily that is reflective comics. To me, this means that I develop a story about something in my life and create a series of panels telling that story or reflection. Here is the one I did last weekend for the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, followed by my comic from the fall. Enjoy!

Sometimes a photo is most powerful 

Cancer is so limited. It cannot cripple love. It cannot shatter hope. It cannot corrode faith. It cannot destroy peace. It cannot kill friendships. It cannot suppress memories. It cannot silence courage. It cannot invade the soul. It cannot steal eternal life. It cannot conquer the spirit. Cancer is so limited. -author unknown

    There are many creative ways to Go Gold in September.  You can paint your nails, wear gold ribbons, decorate your car or front door.  You can make jewelry, wear awareness t-shirts, or join a CureSearch walk. How will you Go Gold?

Pablove Shutterbugs encourages children with cancer in the art of photography. Enjoy at the link below: http://pabloveshutterbugs.tumblr.com/

     A few weeks ago I got to go to Bryce Canyon as part of a class in Nature Photography.  While it was super cold (-2 the first night), it was really cool.  The first night we shot the sunset and then went out at night to shoot the stars from the canyon.  It was beautiful.      The second day we went out to shoot the sunrise at 6 am, when it was still bitter cold and dark.  Sadly, it was foggy, so the shots were not very good.  After breakfast, we went back to the canyon and walked all the way down and explored the slot canyons, hoodoos and awesome rocks!  We hiked about 5 miles, down one side, around the bottom, up the other side and around the canyon rim.  It got warm enough that I could get away with only wearing four layers (instead of 6). After that we had some free time to chill.  That night we went to a waterfall and shot some really cool water photos.  We finished up with an astronomy talk at...

Even though it's now Sunday, I meant to put this up yesterday. These are some of the gorgeous kitties at the Salt Lake City animal shelter.  Because I'm not allowed to actually have a cat in my dorm, I just go pet the ones that don't have owners.  I usually want to take at least two or three home.  Oh well.  Happy Caturday!

So, it's been really exciting in the Steffi world of photography lately. First, I got the chance to sign up for a photography class here at the U, in Nature Photography.  As part of the class, we are going on a three day trip to Southern Utah, Bryce Canyon to be exact.  I am super excited! Secondly, I got a new camera :)  It takes awesome photos: Lastly, since my last blog included a photography page, I'm hoping to get one up and running on this blog.  Watch for updates on this. Yay photography!