Aug 28th 08 - First week of school

So I moved into my house and almost have all my classes worked out.
I still need to bring the bookshelf i have at my house and put it in my room but its too tall to put under my mantle so im gonna have to cut off the top shelf. I made some shelves for the bathroom and tried to make shelves for the closet but they didnt work out too well. Last weekend I brought Donatello my baby turtle to my house but I feel like he's miserable cause his tank is way too small for him. (pictures to come soon)

I have been feeling a lil homesick. which is weird because I was never homesick when I came to school the past 3 years. usually I'm relieved. lol

I have been running 1-2 miles everyday for a week now. except on Monday. I felt sick so i didnt run. and I started doing abs last night

The classes I'm taking are Junior Industrial Design Studio, Advanced Digital Modeling, 3D Game Design, Educational Psych and Intro to Biology.
Biology is boring. of course my design classes are good. though the two computer classes are hard to pay attention in cause i have to sit in a dark warm room for over an hour at a time. Educational Psych is interesting. I like reading the book for the class but the online vista homework system is really confusing.
Then in studio we just started our first project. we have to choose between designing a product for cramped living, bicycle commuters, or a small emergency device. I will probably do cramped living or the emergency device.



Olympics were great. I really love the Olympics. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a paining of Usain Bolt's "bolt pose" cause when I watched him and how he expressed himself on the track I felt like I was whitnessing history... it was a special moment for me. and id love to have a poster of him in my room. I wish there was a female athlete like him...

I'm really not feeling this blogging thing. soo if you reading this let me know.

a few days at R&R

welcome to R&R Customs!




this is the main wall of the store with all the sample shirts.
















this is my airbrush station in the back of the store








This is what a typical few days at R&R is like for me and some examples of the stuff I paint.


cartoons are some of the easier things i do at the store. takes me about 30 mins



















Atlas passed away last week. I painted 3 portraits for his friends. These are two of them. each one takes between 1-3 hours.
























































Drum stick bag for a young boy












its plies baby!
















Trucker hat














Greek stuff! takes about 30 mins




































A family came in and wanted me to personalize their sons first guitar. It took me longer than I wanted but it came out nice. I was happy with it.























Thats all for now!

ready for school

I am ready for school. I know it sounds crazy. but its true. school starts in 4 days and some how i feel like i am back in my workaholic mode. I'm ready to make moves! hopefully this energy will last the whole semester... if its any indication, this summer ive been on and off... so i donno...well see...but i guess you cant always be at your A game all the time anyways right.

I am still kinda nervous about my new housing situation. I was laying in bed last night and realized that I have never had a bedroom on the ground floor. and on top of that my bed is gonna be near two windows facing the road. soo thats kinda scary. and then i was like, ground floor probably means more bugs and stuff too... i'm scared about being safe too... cause there aint no campus police around my house! my bro said that the area right around universities get neglected by cops sometimes bc its like on the edge of two jurisdictions. ugh..

Art In The City and Art Life Style Shows

sorry this is kinda late to talk about it but better late then never right...

so this summer I have met new people in the local art world, two of which are Derick Benetez Bryant and Ayinde Kwaku Purell. (http://benetez3.com and http://ayinde.artistportfolio.net respectively)

Benetez invited me to display my work with him at the Art In The City show at the Metro Cafe July 12th 2008. along with me and Benetez was the music inspired artist Jeffery McCauley of the DC area. Each of us painted a model/waitress/bartender.
^setting up for the show
^2 of the body art models who loved my flamenco painting. especially Liz (left) whom I painted and is a dancer herself.



2 weeks later Ayinde invited me to be a part of his Art Life Style Tour at the 202 Lounge July 25th 2008. two other artists were featured in the show and Ayinde also painted 2 models with body art.


^Imhotep Hester (Bull City Clothing) and I (Photos by Peter Brooks)
^Ayinde and I poseing for a The Real NC (Photos by Peter Brooks)

new hair do and painting progress

um ok so i cut my hair a few days ago. i kinda like it. but it gets poofy and looks HORRIBLE sometimes. so i have to put it in a pony tail but then the sides dont reach so they hang down. if u see me in person thats how youll most likley see me. but it does feel reallllllllly good to have less hair. i think ill grow it out jus a lil more but keep it buzzed short in the back. anyways heres pictures.

oh ya and Toni told me shes gonna have a baby BOY. so Kylan is gonna have a lil brother.
I moved a lot of my stuff to raleigh this morn. and worked on my painting tonight. heres a picture of what it looks like right now. the stuff at the top is masking film that i folded back to show the painting.
I'm pretty excited about this painting. I went through a phase when i was in doubt about how successful this project will be (and I still have doubt about it being as moving as my ghana window kids painting) but when i look at the progress ive made so far it makes me pretty darn happy inside. its weird how i look at the painting and i have a hard time comprehending that i painted it. I'm constantly surprising myself (uh oh, might be a self esteem problem somewhere in there...) I still have a LONG way to go to being a great artist though. I know my work is good but honestly I think I'm just lucky. I havent really worked very hard at trying to get better and learning new techniques like i should. but thats what schools for!!!

Song I been groovin to a lot: Jill Scott - The Fact Is (I need you)