Puff, the Magic Dragonfruit.

A couple days ago, after navigating through my arch enemy (Idaho Falls, that is), my little sister and I successfully arrived at Winco.

It is a magical place.

And something magical happened, there.

I needed to take a photo reference that day of some kind of fruit or vegetable or very very simple object. My teacher for "media experimentation" means business. He is starting us out on what he refers to as the "killer assignment."

That's ominous.


Basically, we have to take a photo of our simple subject. And replicated. With photo realism. Using oil paints.

Yeah, I've never used oil paints before.

But hey, what's the point of being an art major if you're not going to push yourself to insane measures and come out the other end of it being entirely sleep-deprived and starved and smelling like paint?

....Oh, there's also the part about achieving things you never ever thought you could....


But I digress.

There we were in the store. And what is the first thing we see? A solitary cardboard fruit stand holding lots of THESE:

Dragonfruit.

I commented on the coolness of them.

Laura suggested I paint one.

Some random man with long hair warned us that they were filled with an "excessive amount of seeds."

Hmmmm....

And so grabbed one, I did. Kept it safely in the child's seat of the grocery cart, I did. Walked across the warehouse store with the original one in hand to swap it with a new one, I did (because apparently children's seats aren't exactly ideal for keeping dragonfruit in pristine condition).

Oh, and lets not forget the part where the random long hair "excessive seeds" patrol guy wrinkled his nose at my dragonfruit later when he saw it in my cart.

How could he not see the beauty of it? *tsk tsk* Some people....


Well, I have yet to begin the painting. But the underpainting (fancy name for the first step) is due on Wednesday.

Wish me luck.

As for the dragonfruit, it is sitting in my fridge. I am looking forward to opening it and seeing what is inside.

Probably excessive seeds.

In other news,
I am currently in love with this little spot right here.

Desk in front of an open window.
A warm, stormy breeze coming to visit me.
A tree in all its beautiful spring-time wonder.
And,
(you can't see it too well in the picture)
a rather impressive sky of clouds and bright white sunlight.

Needless to say, this is pretty darn refreshing after a long hibernation from the Rexburg-arctica winter.
(I think that name should become official).

Basically, I am high on life right now because it has just been so spectacularly beautiful outside!

In fact, Austin surprised me with a little "mini date" on campus today after lunch.

You see, he is taking an "evergreen identification" class.

And you see, I happen to love trees.

This makes for a good combination.

He took me for a stroll around the campus gardens. They are pretty much the best thing ever during spring time. So insanely colorful! Not to mention, they have LOTS of evergreen trees.

And so we walked along the paths (and sometimes off of them) so he could show me the difference between spruces and pine trees. And how this one kind usually lives for 4000 plus years. And this other kind has needles that are green on top but white on bottom. And how there is one that essentially has rubber branches that you can bend every which way and it does no harm whatsoever to the tree. And how one of them is called a dwarf and it bounces like jello if you give it a little push.

Have I mentioned that he is the man of my dreams???

Well, he is.

And maybe one day we will have one of those Christmas tree farms.

Or maybe just a jello dwarf on our porch.

(Sorry, babe, I can't remember the common OR scientific name for it. I was listening, I promise. But lets be honest, the words that stood out to me most were inevitably "dwarf" and "jello.")


I should probably mention right about now that the "warm stormy breeze" very quickly turned into the kind of wind that makes a tree bounce back and forth as far as a 45 degree angle from the ground.

So... I shut the window. And am excitedly awaiting the thunder storm :)


Now, for some other random business and tidbits:

1. I think the phrase/title "business and tidbits" has extraordinary potential. Any ideas?

2. I still have a few blog posts/topics (the "summary" kind that I had mentioned a couple posts back) that need writing. Or... maybe they need a good tossing-out-the-window-because-school-and-work-keep-me-insanely-busy-and-there-are-too-many-NEW-fun-things-that-are-happening-that-I-want-to-blog-about-to-worry-about-the-old-stuff-anymore.

Um, that hyphenated word was considerably longer than I had anticipated. And kinda makes me cross-eyed (there I go again with the hyphen). But I invested too much effort to suppress the impulse to hit the space bar between words and type a hyphen instead.

So it's going to stay.

As for the blogs posts... maybe I will try to do little (keep in mind this word is up for personal interpretation) posts every couple days. Then once a week I can have "Flashback Fridays."

Yup, that sounds about right. Stay tuned.

3. Yes. School started. And so did work. And so did the perpetual state of messy hands (paint, clay, charcoal... they are my constant companions). Suffice it to say that being back is everything I thought it would be :)

Which includes "really really hard."

But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way! Lets hope that mentality lasts further than just the 2nd week.

4. I am taking piano lessons. First time in years. Boy howdy am I excited. I begin Thursday. But I am wondering what my teacher will think of my "artistically messy" hands... I'm sure some of the great classical composers must have had messy hobbies, too.

Beethoven probably gardened.

Mozart, I'll bet, liked to fingerpaint.

5. I have officially lost my train of thought. Probably because that train has switched tracks to "homeowork and chores and general responsibilities."

But hey, the blogging ride was rather nice while it lasted :)

Last but not least, here is a little piece of my life last week:

Feet up.

In my "messy" clothes (no, I don't wear them all day. Just when I have to. Which is about half the day).

Munching on a nice, cool salad.

And enjoying a brief brake after work, before heading off to the ceramics studio to make an asymmetrical pinch pot.

Yup, life is pretty much fantastic.