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The views represented on this blog are not necessarily those of Higher Things, nor does Higher Things necessarily endorse them.
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Posted At: 8:55pm by Anna Joy
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Things have been interesting this semester. I didn't really anticipate certain events taking place, but they did, and thus it's been a tough semester but I think God's trying to teach me patience.
The semester started off with me coming back to school (yay). Spring semester always hits you harder than fall semester. Bam. Sunday, you drive 6 hours to get back to campus and the following morning you start class at 8:30AM. Not fun. But this semester's first week was...different.
Discovering that you have a room mate that is addicted to sex is not easy. Dealing with it is even harder, especially when you have to deal with it through campus authority (blah Concordia). I'd imagine it's like dealing with any friend you have caught in a bad habit. Unfortunately, the situation didn't quite resolve itself as *I* would have hoped, but then you never really know what God's got up His sleeve in those terms. But in dealing with the situation comes many blessings as well. What's in the past is in the past, but it's been almost two months since the situation was supposedly "resolved." But will it ever really be resolved? I trust that God will deal with it in His own time and His own way.
Portfolio review has come and gone (whoop-dee-doo). I still don't know if I've made it into the program, but I pretty much rocked the presentation (not to be cocky...). After arguing back and forth with myself and God for about two years of college, I've decided that after school if the opportunity presents itself I will go straight into a long term mission. If not, I'll try to find a graphic design job until the right opportunity comes along. Design is an occupation that provides many opportunities to serve the church. There's a lot of shoddy design work out there among the Christian community mainly because...
A) Christians can't afford to hire designers and
B) Most Christian organizations don't realize the importance of looking just as good as everyone else out there.
Design is something that is becoming more affordable. Shopping at Target is one way to find good package design among a whole host of products. Not to mention that Target usually has more eco-friendly options among day-to-day items (especially compared to Walmart). But churches, too, even if in a traditional sense, MUST be prepared to present themselves well. One way to do this is to have good design among not only architecture but the 'advertising' of a church (brochures, posters, etc). This doesn't mean that you take the Bible and put ultra-modern sleek packaging around it in the form of a cover. Seriously. Image is important. If you were trying to evangelize and went out looking like a hobo, do you think you'd get people to approach you? Probably not. Image isn't obviously the most important thing out there, though. Just a thought.
Anyway. Back to where I was before my rant. Graphic design makes a person incredibly marketable because they know how to communicate ideas well with words and image paired together. If you want to get an idea across without being there to verbally communicate it, how do you accomplish that? Hang up posters or leave brochures. What does that require? Being able to catch people's attention visually. This crosses language barriers. Why did people paint pictures of Jesus on the cross? Or why have pictures of the saints? Why have pictures of Adam and Eve in the garden? Hmmmm... communication of ideas.
'nother rant. Basically, I really want to go into the mission field after college. That sums it up well. I don't know how I'm going to get there exactly or what the plan is. I don't really have a plan except to get out of here and then worry about where I end up. If I could I really would love to work in Africa with AIDS patients. But considering the fact that I have no medical training, I don't know how plausible that situation would be. We shall see...
Anyway... I guess that's enough for now. I'm not really sure what I wanted to say in this post. I guess I just wanted to say "HEY! I'm ALIVE!"
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Posted At: 8:38pm by Anna Joy
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I'm an artist and as such I tend to be a little indie/artsy. Make fun of me all you want. I don't care. :P (No really, I don't care.)
In my latest artcapades, I decided to take the pledge to buy handmade gifts this year. Not necessarily because I think it's the best idea on the planet. It'll definitely make gift buying harder. But more because I want to support my fellow craftsmen/women.
Check it out: Buy Handmade
A great place to buy handmade, original stuff: Etsy
Whether or not you give it a try, take a look at the labels on what you buy at stores and see where it comes from. Most things come from overseas. So why not support an artist from the states?
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Posted At: 9:25pm by Anna Joy
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Artist's statements are notoriously hard to write because they're so personal. Not to mention that as an artist, I am not a professional writer.  Anyway, here's the first go. I'll post drafts as I go from here. Comments are more than welcome!
Creating images allows me to share my thoughts and feelings with the world around me. Without the ability to create images, I would be unable to full express my personality. Graphic design has not only allowed me to communicate more wholly with the world around me, it has also given me the opportunity to serve others. In short, the ability to create images gives me a great sense of joy and satisfaction.
As an artist and a graphic designer, my goal is to create pieces that quickly attract attention and easily communicate ideas. I enjoy creating pieces that are fresh and inviting while conveying the information contained in an organized, yet creative manner. I seek to create vivid work that leaves a viewer looking for more. I feel that there is a need for innovative work within the design field and I yearn to fulfill that need.
I was first drawn to graphic design in high school when I was offered a volunteer position to start creating a website for a crisis pregnancy center. As the website developed, I began to research more about the graphic design field. My interest grew from there and I began volunteering for an organization as their publications chair for a conference. As I learned more about the field of graphic design, I realized that I wanted to pursue graphic design as a vocation.
After receiving an assignment, I seek inspiration from my surroundings. Anything from day-to-day conversations, to magazines, to advertisements often inspire me. From this inspiration, I move on to creating thumbnails to find an interesting composition. Thumbnails also help me to determine what technique I will be using to create the piece. From the thumbnails, I move on to actually creating the piece. As I work, I tend to revise from the beginning to the end to create a finished piece.
In my work, I love to experiment with different colors. Color allows me to add a sense of playfulness and whimsy to my work. Along with digital media, I love to incorporate hands-on processes into my pieces where possible. Illustration is one method that allows me to add touches and subtleties that digital media cannot create. If possible, I like to incorporate cultural aspects into my work.
Exploring brought me into this field, and so I continue to explore, knowing that I will never exhaust either the art field or graphic design.
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Posted At: 10:55pm by Anna Joy
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So, on the plane to Cambodia this past summer, I watched about 14 movies (you can do that when you're on a plane for 16 hours twice). One of the movies was Disturbia, starring Shia LaBeouf. As I was watching it, I kept thinking that the movie seemed vaguely familiar. The "I've seen this somewhere before" kept getting stronger and stronger as I watched the movie, but I forgot all about it and kept watching movies.
Then, tonight, it hit me. Rear Window. Of course! How could I not realize it?? Not only did it frustrate me that someone could so obviously steal the plot of an Alfred Hitchcock film, but the fact that they didn't even allude that inspiration came from Rear Window is insulting. Now, I suppose this has been all over the internet since Disturbia came out.
But honestly... I don't understand how you can get away with it. It's so pathetically obvious. So, I suggest that instead of renting/buying Disturbia, invest in the original. Hitchcock is always classic.
Edited on: January 06th, 2008 10:56 pm
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Posted At: 12:17pm by Anna Joy
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She lives!...mainly because Stan threatened me. But also because I planned to post during break so here I am.
This past semester was hard. Printmaking and illustration combined took up about 60 hours a week of homework. They say that you can count on about twice as much homework as the number of credit hours in a class. But for art, that doesn't apply. I put in 60 hours in two weeks on my illustration final, and barely finished in time to submit it. It got done, though, and that's what counts. I've also discovered that no matter what the gen ed, it all feels like a total waste of time. Is anyone with me on that one?
This next semester I'll be working two jobs again. I was offered to become a print technician in September, and took the job not realizing that it would make me responsible for over 100 people's homework every night. I run maintenance on the printers (Epson 9800, 7600, 4000, and 3800) and also queue people's prints. Last year everyone handled their own printing, which caused some damage to the printers, prints coming out badly, etc. So...woohoo! I work nights. I also still work in the library in the tech services part. In other words, I stick the call labels to the spine of books. It's a lowkey job...not much stress involved, thank God.
Basically, that's my life in a nutshell. I spent most of last semester in survival mode. In September, I had been having problems and pain in my abdominal area, so I went to the doctor and they found some cysts which had a slight risk of being cancer. Fortunately, they ran some tests and found out that it was NOT cancer, that I was healthy, and they were caused due to stress (best friend's wedding, day camp, Cambodia, back to school, etc). I got put on some meds and it fixed the problem.
Apartment life is nice, but it's also nice still being on campus. I can see why people would want to live off campus, though. I won't be able to live off campus until senior year, which is fine with me. I have a friend that lives in a cute little apartment downtown that looks like it would be nice. We'll see! It's a year and a half away still. ;)
And that's about it for now... I'll try to blog more later and see if I can come up with more interesting things to blog about!
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