paper mache

it is christmas eve...ah hem...actually it is christmas now in spain since i am seven hours ahead of home. and i find myself eatting mexican food, watching movies and blowdrying a paper mache balloon. spanish traditions? hardly. some bizarre party? nope. actually a couple friends and i just found ourselves bored and trying to forget that so much distance separated us from home. don't get me wrong....i love barcelona. i have a life here and i'm deep in it with little desire to change where i am. its just that there really is no replacement for home. especially on days like today when everyone and their uncle is planning a family get-together. no need to feel sorry for me though...i was lucky enough to have just had my sisters here for a few days last week. it passed so quickly that it left me wondering if they had actually come at all. amanda followed us around one day and took some fotos for us since we are so rarely all together. gracias aj. you are brillant.

eire

aj and i just got back from a quick trip to dublin, ireland with mar, a friend of ours here. going there has always been a dream of mine (and good for me it has been for aj and mar as well). this is the three of us in a shop window near garforth street. cool shopping. we were actually suprised by how small the city was...this was the main area to go shopping and get a cafe. needless to say we spent enough time there. it being dublin=windy, rainy, cold...we drank our weight daily in coffee. this is mar and i at one of the local pubs one night. we found dr. pepper. enough said. this is mar relaxing at the hostel one afternoon. props to mar for finding the best and cheapest hostel in europe. that also happens to have the brightest walls as well. this is in steven's green and a lot of ducks. aj looking pensive at trinity college. she is probably off to take some brillant photo or something.

gothic point

ok..so the show is finally up! these pictures were taken by aj last friday when she, matt and i went to put the show up at the gothic point hostel, here in the born. we had the openning party this past tuesday. the hostel had a photografer out there documenting the evenning. when i get some of those, i'll be sure to post some. yes, matt is standing on a vending machine. haha...thanks guys for all your help and support! i owe ya. this is me and a lot of the show. i look angry but i was actually in a really good mood. a little weirded out that my art was on the wall...and slightly self conscious, but relieved that it was up and happy too. i am a mess...i know.

face

the metro door closed on my face on friday. my nose is still sore. haha. aj and matt say i should be blogging this kind of thing. so there it is! oh. and the art show's openning night is tonight (tuesday). i'm actually pretty nervous about it. it seems like little bits of myself are in frames and on the wall for everyone to view and critique. weird. i hope the evenning is filled with just being with friends and celebrating together. i'll let ya know how it goes.

tortuga and girls

here is mr. turtle. he is for jonas. this is the two girls. the completed version of one of the first illustrations. i lost the original...oophs!

childlike

tonight i found myself sitting by pere in the hallway watching a stream of people pass through the school to see a new exhibition by a japanese artist. pere is one of the youngest seventy year old people i know. he dyes his beard orange. he dances. he sings. he is always eating out of a bowl. he tries to liberate people. i mentioned to him tonight that i am having trouble illustrating. i tend to copy. i want it to look realistic. he said that if i could return to my childhood i would find the whole creative process a little less fustrating. you see, he reminded me, kids don't worry about what is right or wrong in art. they just create. they don't worry about getting messy...they have fun. he said that we too often become the critical and worried adults that unfortunately cannot create like we once could as children. it sounded a lot to me like when Jesus said that to understand the kingdom of God we had to become like children. their spirits are untouched. their eyes are clear. their hearts are playful. i want to recapture some of that as i create and as i approach God. i think that children have so much to teach us. by the way, happy 2nd jonas. you teach me something everytime we play. i love you.