Still Alive (Not a "Portal" reference)

To be honest I haven't been feeling well and I've been neglectful. I will hopefully pass through this bought of illness soon. Since Monday I haven't felt 100%.

Regardless, before the Dom tour on Wednesday, I was able to procure a book that will become invaluable to my ART 490 project...

...oh, wait. Did I forget to let everyone in on a last minute change? Yes. To make a long story short, I was enrolled in ART 490 in the beginning, dropped it, found inspiration in Weltenburg in the form of a European peacock butterfly, and added the class back on. Ta da. I am now ambitiously taking 15 hours while in Germany... If I am correct only one other girl is doing this and her 15 hours are the result of a 3 hours senior seminar conducted by a certain JMC professor I know (the girl's a PR major, so that gives it away right there). The only thing she has to do is send in a resume... thus, I am the only person to be "truely" taking a whole 15 hours. Again, how sickeningly ambitious for someone who is wanting to drop her art minor (I just tell everyone it's Spanish here because I the last thing I want is, "Oh! So you can draw!" or whatever. In reality, I can't. I can speak Spanish and that's the minor that will make my life easier in graduating... neither here nor there. You guys can bash me for being dishonest later... I've got so many hours in various classes I could graduate with probably 5 different minors, who cares what my paperwork says?).

Anyway. I digress again. ART 490 involves a travel journal. I bought a fancy-shmancy Moleskine journal with the express intention of drawing any random thing I saw, no plan and no theme. This makes for bad form in the art world. Really it is. I took ART 382 and was criticized because all of my photos looked like a different person was taking them each time. I thought this was being versatile... the art world says being versatile only counts if you carry your theme across different art techniques. So, I dropped the class and it wasn't until recently that I thought that I could do something good with it... although I have serious doubts in my drawing abilities.

So, what's the idea? Well, here's the proposal:

The travel journal is going to become an illustrated botanical guide to various plants found here in Germany. I am not looking for plants only common to Germany; if they're found in America, so be it. I'm just looking for plants that are HERE. The book that I bought was procured for the meager proce of 19 Euro and 95 cents. It is approximately two inches thick, weighs about 5 pounds, and is written in completely in German; it is a very comprehnsive guide to plants. It even includes the diagrams for chemical compounds and scientific names. This makes my life so much easy.

I plan to find plants, draw a complete picture on the verso of the Moleskine and a few drawings of a more in-depth look at the plants anatomy on the recto. Using one of the other fabric bound Moleskines I have (these are all thanks to my good friend in Alabama, Andrea) and will use one of these as an Appendix to jot down interesting facts about the plants. Another book might be used as a plant collection journal.

Three books total: One is very passive (I pick the plant in question, stuff it in a book), one is a little less passive (I look up what the plant is, I translate some German), and the last... not so passive (I draw). Of course, the drawing will be the hardest as I have no faith in myself. I shall do my best however.

That and I get to thinking about these otehr classes compounded with this added class I do feel a little over-whelmed. However, I think the added pressure might help push me to work harder. I was beginning to feel like I would do very little in the way of my univeristy studies... a vacation with a couple of tours daily in a classroom really. So, I hope this project will not only be the cause for increased ambition but also spark an interest in exploring more of Regensburg (or wherever I find the plants).

Other than that, I might not blog too terribly much this weekend: I have a test in GER 101 and GER 105 next week PLUS the other courses begin. I want to spend this weekend studying and maybe renting a movie. That should be exciting... trying to apply for a German movie rental card... Maybe I'll let you guys know how that goes.

Anyway, cheers!