photo-happy tuesday!

Good morning :) Today seems like a beautiful day...
but then I realized that today is the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing that happened in 1995. I didn't live here then (I was in 8th grade in WI) but I've been to the memorial and it's hauntingly beautiful. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones that day and who's lives were forever changed. I remember hearing about it on the news, but it didn't really sink in until I did the Memorial 5k last year and saw all the people walking and running, wearing buttons, hats and shirts with pictures of the people, the children, they were running in memory of. It's impossible not to get emotional. For those of you who haven't been, here are some pictures....

west side view

sw side view

Amber & I after the Memorial 5k in 2010

east side view

north side view

nw side view

I'm still a tab bit sleepy and I have a slight crink in my neck from sitting at the table all day and night long yesterday doing homework. But I did get a lot accomplished. When my eyes finally went cross with formulas and multiculturalism controversies, I decided to unwind the best way I know how... painting.

Here's a peak at a few canvases I've been working on....

This one has been a work-in-progress for some time now... I was kind of stuck and waiting for an idea to come to me and I did last night. I still need to make the letters a little more bold and give Robert Louis Stevenson a little credit for saying this but overall, I'm pleased. I freehanded the words so they took me a few hours, but I felt like they complimented the wine/poetry idea.

30" x 40" x 1.5"

The next is a little something I've been working on for a girl that I used to work with in Wisconsin. She wanted a painting that coordinated with the  Hayley Bedding she was getting her daughter from Pottery Barn. It still needs a few minor tweaks and lines here and there but for the most part, it's close to done. The little girls name is Maryn so I also painted a wooden M that she can hang in her room that matches.

This one I just started this weekend and it's no where near close to being done... It needs another layer of red and then I need to figure out if I want to do just yelow circles or incorporate some orange in there, too. I'm painting this with the inspiration I received from reading my all time favorite book... Eat, Pray, Love.
One of my favorite lines is: "L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle. (The love that moves the sun and the other stars.)" and that is what I'm painting on this, which is why I left lots of room for the words. I don't think I'm going to put the english translation on it, but I want to write it big in a twirly flowy pretty kind of script font.

Lst but not least, I thought I would share this... because it's probably the strangest gift I've ever received, though oddly I think it kind of fits me in a weird way. And I love it because it's unlike anything I've ever laid my eyes upon.
Saturday, my bf's mom knocked on the door and when I answered it, she said she had bought something for me but her husband was carrying it over because it was too heavy for her to carry. This immediately piqued my interest.
Then he walked through the door with this......

The lighting in my living room isn't great, but I'm sure you can tell it's some kind of bear (I think) and a long oblong piece of glass sits on top of it. I have no clue where to put it, our house isn't tiny but there's just not a good place to put it, so for now it's in a corner of our living room. It  makes me chuckle every time I look at it.
Isn't it weird the things people see that make them think of you?!

Another busy day, I need to study a bit more before class and I take my exam this afternoon... my anxiety is always worse than the exam itself. So I hope all you lovely beautiful people have a wonderful sunshine filled Tuesday... it's poem time!
Since I already talked about Elizabeth Gilbert and I love her, I'm going to share two poems by her :)

From Elizabeth Gilbert, Two Poems from an Ashram in India

From Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
All this talk of nectar and bliss
is starting to piss me off
I don't know about you, my friend,
but my path to God ain't no sweet waft of incense.
It's a cat set loose in a pigeon pen
and I'm the cat - but also them who yell like hell when they get pinned.
My path to God is a worker's uprising
won't be peace till they unionize
Their picket is so fearsome
the National Guard wont' go near them.
My path was beaten unconscious before me,
by a small brown man I never got to see,
who chased God through India,
shin-deep in mud, barefoot and famined, malarial blood,
sleeping in doorways, under bridges - a hobo.
(which is short for "homeward bound," you know)
And he now chases me, saying, "Got it yet, Liz?"
What Homeward means?  What BOUND really is?

Second
However,
If they'd let me wear pants made out of the fresh-mown grass from this place,
I'd do it.
If they'd let me make out
with every single Eucalyptus tree in Ganesh's Grove,
I swear, I'd do it.
I've sweated out dew these days,
worked out the dregs,
rubbed my chin on tree bark,
mistaking it for my master's leg.
I can't get far enough in.
If they'd let me eat the soil of this place
sewed on a bed of bird's nests
I'd finish only half my plate,
Then sleep all night on the rest.