Proudest Moment

My proudest moment would have to be getting my acceptance letter from UCSB, not that it wasn't expected or anything, I fully knew that I would get in, it was just all the hard work that brought me to that moment that I was proud of. In high school I had a 3.8 GPA. I was smart and completely able to go to college but neither of my parents were college graduates so they knew nothing about the application process or anything. My counselors never pushed me and neither did my parents and I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up so the college application period came and went and I didn't even take the SAT. This is one of my biggest regrets. So I went off to GCC the local community college. It was literally hell on earth. For everyone that doesn't know there are a few defining characteristics of the population of Glendale. 1. They drive crazy expensive foreign cars....extremely angrily 2. They smoke A LOT literally everywhere and anywhere doesn't matter if they are in the doorway of a classroom. 3. They don't give a fuck about anyone who has a problem with any of this or anything else. I had to dodge my way through clouds of armani cologne, smoke, crying babies and try to not get hit or cussed out by anyone in the parking lot every day.  I endured extreme apathy and indifference from all the staff there, teachers, counselors, everyone. I had to figure out my own course schedule in order to leave and was mislead by the counselors into taking classes that didn't matter. Literally no one cared at all help was nowhere and I only had 1 friend. I hated it. I went to school year round so that I could finish all my coursework in time to apply. I finished 70 units in 2 years there which I think is equal to about 110 here since they were semester units. I applied and was so excited that my life would finally change for the better. Living at home and going to that school were literally killing me inside. I was depressed and mad all the time.

When I logged in to my application online and saw that I had been accepted I was so happy. I had made it through and I was done with this horrible stage in my life. I had worked so hard, taking summer school and winter sessions while everyone else was having fun. I felt relief and happiness and proud all at the same time and I felt amazing. My life was about to take a turn for the better finally. It is hard being a transfer and sometimes the cliques are hard to infiltrate. It can be hard to carve out a place for yourself among all the people who did have a freshmen and sophomore year. Sometimes it can be lonely here, but at least I have freedom, a campus I don't despise going to and more than 1 friend that I can hang out with. I was and am proud of myself for being the first person in my family to be going to college.

My Greatest Art Piece

The above painting took me 50 hours to paint over 10 days.

I took design 2 at my CC and was immediately struck with how intense my teacher Megan Geckler was (show was featured last week in entries). She emphasized how perfect lines and completely opaque made a clean look that would mimic the precision of digital prints if done correctly. Then she gave us our assignment. It was to create a kaleidoscopic image and paint it using only tints tones and shades of 3 colors. First I had to design 1/8 of the kaleidoscope. Once I had a design that I thought I liked I flipped, matched and duplicated the image on photoshop. Then after that was done, I got a print of that image on a 13x 13 square. I then had to transfer the image from the paper to illustration board to paint which meant that I had to cover the back of the paper with graphite and trace the whole image so that the image was on the illustration board now. After all this work I had to mix my colors. I made 11 tints tones and shades of blue, yellow and blue-green. Then came the excruciating part... I had to paint this with the precision and skill that my teacher had so emphasized. I painted with a number 1 brush using layers of opacity to create a full opaque and completely flat no lumpy pieces of paint surface. There were some days where I'd sit down for 9 hours straight and only get a tiny corner done. I would be so grumpy at the end of the day after having sat for 9 hours painting. I would have dreams about me painting this stupid 13 by 13 square. There were some days that I thought that when I finished, I'd most like to light the piece on fire. It was sucking up my life putting all this work into a painting for a deadline it left me achey and frustrated at the end of each session. I finally did finish it though and was one of the only people in my class to actually turn it in on time. The teacher ranted and raved about my fine work and I almost cried because I was so happy to be done and so proud of how beautiful it had turned out. this is the work that I put the most of my energy at a time into and I love it. Its hanging in my room today...I didn't light it on fire.I love it and I'm extremely proud of it.