{{{{{{{{{{{{ Thankful }}}}}}}}}}}}}

I have a lot of things to be thankful for. Some are profound, some are silly sounding, but all are very sincere…..

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God. Not just the gifts and blessings He gives us although they may be wonderful, no, the person Himself. What an awesome thing that the God who created a universe trillions upon trillions of light years long cares about our hearts and what we do with our lives. That that person loves ME is….incredible. Incredible being the understatement of the millennium. I truly cannot say enough about my Savior, so I will leave it at that

Tim. My soon-to-be-husband. It never ceases to amaze me how deeply I love this man, and that God placed us together at the right place, the right time. He is truly my favorite person on this earth, and I am blessed continuously by the privilege it is to love and be loved by him.

My families. Yes, I have two now Of course I love my family, my sister, mom, dad, and two grandmas. They are a constant support, source of inspiration, love, compassion, generosity, honesty and laughter. I would not be the person I am today without them, and I love them all very much. But through Tim, I also have another family, a family I have grown to love very, very much. I am also profoundly thankful for them for their joy, their love, their support, their generosity, their kindness and yes, their laughter too.

My church families. This also includes friends who attend the same churches I do. I attend Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim and Bethany Bible Fellowship. These families continuously amaze me with their love and support. Why just last night when I wasn’t feeling well, I had people offering to pray for me and get me anything I needed. People who don’t even know me that well. I see the love and Spirit of Christ in both of these church bodies and my spirit is always lifted with joy when I am there.

My dearest friends. This includes people I know from school, people I have met through various jobs, people I have known almost my entire life. I am overwhelmed many times by their joy, compassion and all the fullness they bring to my life. I love them all.

My studio/house. It is really hard to have a grandmother with Alzheimer’s. I pray for her often, but know that the disease is not something to be reversed But through her illness, she has given me (and Tim) a profound gift ::: a place to live. For the past year, her house has been my studio and it has been a very gracious host to my art practice. However in six months, it will also be my new home, my first place of residence apart from my childhood home, my place of many new beginnings. I am so profoundly thankful for it.

My pain. Wow. Yup, when I really think about it, in so many ways I am thankful for it. Thankful that is pushes me to rely more on God than I would on my own. Thankful that it causes me to let go of some of my pride, and ask for help. Of course I am not thankful or happy about the control it sometimes holds over my life, but I am thankful that through it, I am learning.

There are lots more little things————- possessions, objects, little things. But these are the “biggies” the ones that are weighing on my mind as I reflect in this season of thanks.

—- Hi!! —-

To my Art History Students: HI! I hope you like what you see

To everyone: A picture I drew, scanned in and vecorized::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I just started teaching at a wonderful school: Arborland Montessori School and I am the primary Art teacher at their Valencia Ave. Fullerton, CA location. It was a very exciting first week. Not only because I met all those students for the first time, but because I got to teach the same exact lesson. SIX times. Wow. By the end of the week, I was getting a little tired, even of my own curriculum. What I was not tired of, was talking about what I had drawn for my class example. See, the lesson was to draw a family portrait. And since he (and his family!) will soon become my family, I drew Tim in my family portrait. And let me say, he has never looked better

~~~ In case ~~~

…You don’t stalk me on Facebook, here is what I did (with Tim’s help) when I went camping at the beach.

Yup. Art Nerd alert.

** GAH **

I haven’t been able to paint for almost two months because of construction at our house which limited my access to power tools as well as lack of funding to buy the supplies I need. I miss painting so very much. I miss the way my fingers and nails were stained with various hues of pigment. I miss accidentally stepping in a paint puddle with fresh socks on. I miss watching the paint swirl on the canvas as it mixes with another color. I miss evicting myself from my studio as I unable to breath because of the spraypaint fumes, I miss spraying paint into a puddle of poured pigment and watching the two fight against one another. I miss the quiet time I have to myself, just to be with and think about color. Once I gain some funding and clear out some space for the power tools I will get to work once again. I greatly look forward to that day

////Oragami!////

So my dear friend Anna has recently gotten me in to Oragami! Through YouTube, I taught myself how to make cranes. Now, according to Tim, there are superior cranes that when made, can flap, but I have yet to find how to make these. For now, these will suffice. Once I find something that I like to do, I really go to town on it, and after learning how to make the cranes, I made, like, 100 of them. Yup.

——– New Paintings!!! ——–

Some new paintings to showcase to you all!

~~~ Camera ~~~

For graduation/birthday I received an Sony Alpha 200 DSLR. A great camera. Now you might be wondering, artist Marisa– why a Sony when there are “better” cameras out there (Canon, Nikon, etc). Well, I’ll tell you. It is simple: We have 5 lenses from an old Minolta DSLR that fit perfectly on the Sony. Why the Sony? I have so many lens options!!

Needless to say, when I was transferring pictures of the teapot I took this morning, I noticed some pictures my favorite person had left on there after his vacation up to Washington. I decided to post some, so you could see how this camera not only takes great pictures, but what a GREAT photographer my Tim is. Wowzies

——– Color!! ——–

If you know me, you know that it is something that I absolutely adore. Something that I utilize constantly, it it the main weapon in my arsenal when I am making art. So my dear friend Gretchen Farwell hit the nail on the head when she made me these:

I love

love

LOVE this !!

I was just looking at them this morning and decided I would blog about them and praise the work of Gretchen. She is an excellent ceramist, designer and photographer. For her senior show, she is making a TON of beautiful, unique and carefully crafted tea pots with which to grace the gallery space. Her work is always so unique, so fresh, and so lovingly made. Ahhhhh….I just can’t say enough how much I love her work. And the best part, I have no idea how to do what she does. Clay and I have never been friends and for all those out there who make sculpture or three dimensional work, I applaud you. I could not do what you do

I can has design skills.

So, in addition to everything else I do, I have learned I can design things. In Illustrator. YAY!

This is the final version of a wedding invite that I designed. Turned out pretty good, eh?

So….if you need any design work, let me know

:::: Some Things ::::

So I haven’t posted in a while, I know. Please forgive me.

First, it was graduating, then camping, then my dear friend got married and then…more stuff.

Life has been crazy, chaotic, and awesome.

You’ll be happy to know I have been painting, selling work, trading work, talking to people about my work, donating my work to a church I go to, being in a video about my work, and yet still, more painting. It is getting to the point that I am needing morecanvases (!!!!)

And most recent in the news, I will be working for this wonderful program. It is just starting up and needs teachers, so tell your friends. Do it.

Do it now.

I am going to be a visual arts instructor for the program. The director is super awesome, a Christian and just, yeah, super awesome.

So there you are: an update on my life. Come back soon, and I will post some images of new paintings