Tonight tonight

I just arrived at my parents house. They are studying Romanian and listening to the radio station on the TV. When a good song comes on they stop and dance for the song and then back to the books.
Right after I came in the door, Could I Have This Dance by Anne Murray came on. They started waltzing around the living room and I almost cried thinking about how that song reminds me of the relationship I have seen them have my whole life. When we were little we would play that Anne Murray album and my parents would always hold each other and dance to that song. It typifies their love for one another and will forever remind me of them.
I love that song. And I sing along to all of the words.



I'll always remember the song they were playin',
The first time we danced and I knew,
As we swayed to the music and held to each other,
I fell in love with you.

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?
Would you be my partner every night?
When we're together, it feels so right.
Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

I'll always remember that magic moment,
When I held you close to me.
'Cause we moved together, I knew forever,
You're all I'll ever need

Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?
Would you be my partner every night?
When we're together, it feels so right.
Could I have this dance for the rest of my life?

recent works and sentiments

maybe nothing will make you happy
but to give
and give
and give
voids filled
with try
and try
and try
once bitten
twice shy.

Haircut Hiatus

This week six people asked me to cut their hair!!! I stressed about juggling all the appointments, contemplated buying a Blackberry to help me organize my hair schedule, looked at hydraulic salon chairs on craigslist, reveled in the newly found source of cash flow, but decided I need to make some decisions.
It was probably one of the worst weeks, because I didn't spend a lot of time working in my studio! With all the outside appointments and jobs, I am getting behind in my artwork. This can't happen again. I am taking a haircut hiatus!!!

someone once said....

"by embracing the diversity of human beings you find a way to true happiness"

and I agree.

planet earth

Looks like it's more than mother nature.

art shmart

my piece got accepted to the Statewide Annual Competition!!! it will be on display at the Rio Gallery in Salt Lake all month. The opening reception is tonight. and I am pretty excited about art.

blowing my mind. one more time.

The Bowerbirds have done it again. Last night I was talking with a friend about writing a break-up song. I feel like every break-up is different, because the people involved are different and a bad relationship is caused by a variety of miscommunications or unvalidating actions and words, or just plain differences of opinion etc etc. but mostly we just hear the generic break-up songs on the radio...boy misses girl, is lonely, wonders if they should get back together, hopes to find someone new....I could go on.
As a artist I'm faced every day with having to be creative and feeling like I may never be original and when it comes to song writing, I get really overwhelmed. So many songs have already been written. What could possibly be novel in the music world??
Then today, this song popped up on my ipod and Emily and I evaluated and re-evaluated each and every lyric. We love it. This song is so deep and so original. It is layered with meanings and I love that complexity.
In the end, I loved Emily's explanation. She felt that the guy noticed a lot of the girl's faults, like how she was always switching words around to be in her favor and tallying up her wins, but in the end it was hardest to admit that she actually was right. Basically he was just prideful, but it is said with more eloquence and words.
Really good spin on an emotion we have all felt at many times in relationships.



Put my dreams in my hands so I know I'm sure
Give me all that I want from this giant world
But you can't seem to not tally it up
So we know the score

Show me how I'm a man
Show me the light
Show me the wins of the day and the depths of the night
But you can't seem to not show me all that you sacrificed

And, well, nothing is harder
Than to know how much I still owe you

You could move like a silver cloud through the skies
You could move like a secret and slip past my life
But you can't seem to quit moving words around to show who was right

And, well, nothing is harder
Than to know that you were never wrong, dear

Never Before Seen

This is a girl in my ward. I have been over to her house the last two nights for different ward activities and she has played this song for us. It is so amazing!!! I have never seen a cello played in this way before and absolutely love this song!

It's Chris O'Clock.

Last week I received a text from a guy named Chris Crosby, he had heard of my sewing skillz and needed some things sewn so we set an appointment for a fitting, Tuesday at 6 o'clock. Then a friend of mine Chris Nielsen needed me to fix his pants before he went out of town, I scheduled with him for Tuesday at noon. On Monday night my old friend Chris Allen texted me that he was in town and wanted to know if we could see each other, how about Tuesday at 6pm? We decided to make dinner together. I figured I would just fit Chris Crosby and then be able to make dinner with Chris Allen.
So Tuesday rolled around and Chris Nielsen couldn't make the noon appointment and I gave him option two, "How's 6 o'clock?" I might as well fit everyone at the same time.
I sat back and laughed. I was going to have 3 Chris' at my house at 6 o'clock!
I started to prep for dinner and decided to invite my friends Janna and Meg. I had just bought some yellow curry paste and had a ton of vegetables from my parents garden that I wanted to use.
So at 6, with the curry simmering, Chris Crosby showed up and I fitted him, Chris Allen came to help make dinner, Janna and Meg came with their brother Christian (who we call Chris!!) and Chris Nielsen stood me up. I invited Chris Crosby to join us for dinner and we set up a table outside on the lawn.
It was a delightful dinner party. I just kept laughing! All the guys at my house that day were named Chris. Midway through dinner my roommate Rachel came home with her fiancee. I almost fell off my seat when I remembered that his name was Chris TOO!
Maybe I should record this moment for the Guinness Book of World Records, "Most Chris' at a Dinner Party."
6 o'clock was more like Chris o'clock.

It's so GOOD.

I subscribed to GOOD Magazine. You choose how much you pay for it and all your money then goes to a charity of your choice. It really is sooooo good. I love the design and also the information. I think it helps me live a life that's a little more green because it makes me more conscientious of how I can reduce/reuse/recycle. Part of me wants to be a big tree-hugging hippie and I guess that's the part I'm gratifying through this magazine...in the coolest possible way.

This month they talked about commuting to work on your bike. The article is there online to read about bike safety. I lol-ed at the last line of advice, "Wear a helmet. If you're too embarrassed, you're also too dumb to ride a bike in a city. Seriously." haha.

From The Futro.

At the beginning of August I had a small exhibit of recent artworks just for fun. There was extra space in the HFAC so the gallery director let me make a show of it, might as well pad the resume, right?

My art goal is to make people happy. I want patrons to see my works and be filled with glee, reminiscing on childhood faux pas or day dreaming about the future. Hopefully, the viewer understands that I wish my works to be filled with a longing for the naivete of adolescence, an embrace of endless imagination and tactless/shameless conversations and statements, that we all remember from the "good ole days."

I think naivete is different from ignorance. One is naive when they are open-minded, but they just haven't had the opportunity to learn something yet. One is ignorant when they are close-minded and stubborn in acquiring available knowledge. Simple naivete, childhood peace and happiness, are what I want people to feel when they look at my works.

I was sooooooo excited when I looked through the comment book I left out for visitors to sign. Many of the viewers expressed these same ideas that I had hoped my pieces would engender.

Here are some things they said:

-This show makes me happy.
-I LOVE THIS. Your use of colors is so great! This exhibit is full of good things. I'm going nuts over the humor, whimsy, subtlety and lovely aestehtic. And your glazing is killer cool! Thanks for an awesome experience!
-It's so whimsical and reminds me of children's toys. It's happy--That's refreshing.
-AWZZUM!
-Thank you for making me smile.

Here a few pix of the pieces in the show. Enjoy! I hope they make you happy.

PS. old news.

I have a website in the works.
It's only gonna get better than this.

Kings of Genius.

So many people in this world are amazingly creative. I love hearing about the novel ideas that friends and complete strangers have. Maybe this isn't so novel, but Noah and The Whale made a complete movie to go along with their next album.
Its called The First Days of Spring. I am really excited to see the film and listen to the album at the same time.

Check out a little sneak peek HERE. Great, no?

i olive heart you.

Last Monday I had the chance to go see Bowerbirds at Kilby Court. It has been about a year since I saw them last. They have been one of my favorite bands for a long time. Last year I planned my vacation to Germany around their concert and convinced some guy I didn't know (a friend of my cousin's) to drive me to Frankfurt to find an old bread factory (the Brotfabrik) where they were playing. It was one of the best shows I had ever seen! But this one topped it!! I am tempted to follow them around the country going to every single show they play and singing along at the top of my lungs.


Bowerbirds at the Brotfabrik, 2008


This is one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Olive Hearts (click on the link to hear the song)

With my toes dangling into the sea,
Into a fog, into a lonely drink
Don't lift me up,
I'm a wreck, I know
Still, I've got miles to walk from the cape along the coast
And we'll play helicopter in the sand
And bite our thumbs at the acquaintances,
And make it known we're on par for the evening,
And take the butcher's knife through my words again

Then, in walk, the mannered men
With their smoke-screened eyes
And the sequined girls
With their skirts hemmed high
And you will know from this
That it's all to start.
Our glasses clink,
And our plastic swords stab our olive hearts

All night like a friendly ghost
We haunt the ins and outs of this house of our gracious host
And give thanks, but not much helps.
And so here is where we give the toast:
Cheers to the wives of the drunks
Cheers to the husbands that tag along for good luck
Cheers to the miles it took to get here
Cheers to the the nerve it takes to forget who we are

Then, in walk, the mannered men
With their smoke-screened eyes
And the sequined girls
With their skirts hemmed high
And you will know from this
That it's all to start.
Our glasses clink,
And our plastic swords stab our olive hearts

self. great. day.

Today was a wonderful day.
Maybe it's because it was my last day as an intern at the Salt Lake Art Center. It's nice to be finished working without pay while commuting and living out of a suitcase at my sister's house. Woah! I can't believe I did that for 3 months!!!
Or maybe it's because my friends came up and we ate out at the Himalayan Kitchen. Yum. Nepali food is yum. but make sure you get the mild...
Or maybe it's because I got to go to the temple this morning and I had all fresh, clean clothes. I love that feeling. Plus I didn't fall asleep once, never even closed my eyes! wowz.
Or it might be because I finally talked with the Gallery 303 and told them all the info for my show that opens next week! EZCCITTIngG!!
Or it could be because we went to a free concert tonight, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at Slowtrain Records and stood right in front, two feet away, and requested songs for him to play and listened and danced. That was soooooo fun!
All the things I love, wrapped into 24 hours.
These ingredients (along with seeing the cute neighbor boy and making a delicious smoothie for breakfast with a magic bullet) make for a good day, I can't deny it.
I 100% loved today and am ecstatic for tomorrow.

Ah what a world...

My friend showed me this article from the New York Times. I love these towns. They are trying to make a difference, one day at a time. I want to be like them. I wish my town could have similar progressive attitudes. Come on Provo.

Death by Bob Dylan

Do you know how many albums Bob Dylan has?

I do, because as I was a passenger/prisoner in a car for seven hours (actually 8, because of a missed exit and 60 extra miles), I was forced to listen to ALL of them. Ok, I'm being overly dramatic, but the music was so loud and jangly. To me, all his songs sound the same and at top decibels, all of them are unbearable. It could be that I have finally come to the realization that I don't like Bob Dylan.
I guess I am just lucky I didn't die from over-exposure. I kinda felt like I might...

love this artist.

I really love these. Good Job, Rob Longo!

Untitled (White Riot), 1982



Untitled, 1981

Es la verdad.

I am a sucker for live music and long hair.
I'm in the process of growing mine out again.
Let it be known.



my "short" hair

REJECTED!!!

That word sounds so mean. But really, it doesn't have to be. I think about that all the time. Today at my internship at the Salt Lake Art Center, I wrote rejection letters to artists who had submitted proposals. It was crazy to be on that side of the spectrum, seeing all those artists' proposals. It made me nervous to be an artist. These people were my competition (since I want to be a practicing artist) and I saw their strategies and portfolios.

The curators had reviewed their proposals and decided that basically what they were doing in their artwork just isn't the aim/goal of the Art Center right now. So I was given the job of politely dismissing their proposed exhibitions and urging them to go on with their noble efforts in another direction.

It's not that we hate them, I actually saw some pretty good artists in the mix, its just that their ideas aren't going to further the mission of the Art Center, so we had to pass them up. And really, that's just the way it is in life. I don't think people mean to hurt you personally when they "reject" you, they just mean to urge you into better, more compatible directions. That's all.