It's been a short while...

This winter has been really rough on my creative process, more so than the winter typically is. I am definitely one of the millions of Minnesotans who is negatively affected by five months of the perma-cloud. But the sun has shown its lovely face and I have felt its warm rays upon my skin, even if it is shortlived. I feel very much renewed! One of the many projects I want to continue working on this spring is my alphabet book that I started early this winter but from which I have since taken a couple months hiatus. I like to look at this project as my autobiography at its simplest. Every letter references an important object or memory in my childhood and what that object or memory symbolizes to me now as an adult. Each illustration includes a little Liz, how I picture myself as a child. Here's a peak at a few of the letters I have been working on:

Roads

Most of my recent art has been centered around the theme of memories, especially my own childhood memories. Typically I stick to drawings and paintings and I am rather tech shy, but the experimental media arts class I took last semester forced me out of my comfort zone. Our final project was to create a cinematic essay through non-linear video. My essay is all about Papa, my grandfather, who died in the summer of 1992 when I was six years old. It focuses on my memories of him and how even these few memories are slowly fading. Now it has become more of an association of specific objects with him as opposed to particular moments in time. In my six year old mind, Papa was a brilliant bard, a singer of songs and a smoker of smokes. For sources, I used old home video footage from that summer and everything else I recorded myself (with some help from my mom and brother, Josh). And here's the part where I have to admit that I loved doing this project. I really enjoyed the entire process, especially the editing portion, so much so that I am considering buying my own video camera and I desperately want Final Cut Pro. What has this done to me?! Hopefully I will be making more films in the future.