Christmas 2009

Last year for Christmas we had few presents but went on a big trip. Part of the trip involved playing in the snow. Along the way back we ate at a wonderful Thai restaurant. This year we took a step back from that and had few presents and stayed home. Here's our Christmas tree, it's not really crooked, it just looks that way from the picture.

We did however decide to have a different kind of meal for Christmas. We ended up deciding the main course would be sushi (home made). We also got a Thai cook book for Christmas, and at the last minute decided to have thai crab corn soup. Everything ended up tasting quite good. Below are just a bunch of pictures of the meal.

Notice Sonora's dreadlocks. Here is the sushi and soup all laid out.

Here's Julie making the sushi

Soup being cooked.

Merry Christmas!

Julie's painting class Fall 2009

Julie took 2nd semester painting at the University. Below is what she painted during the semester. Some are just practice and skill building works.



In this painting - the assignment was to abstractly express emotion - this one is NIGHT TERRORS

This is a Fresco that was a color study - not actually part of the class.

A self portrait using black, white and one other color.

color study with boxes

The assignment was to paint two related paintings that expressed abstract spirituality. This one got hung up on the wall in the University - several of the faculty expressed how much they liked it.

The next two are landscapes that were meant to be non-traditional, with the first one being warm colors in the foreground with cool colors in the back ground. The second one is above the usual line of sight.

Color (gray scale actually) studies.

Below are 5 related paintings - kind of variation on a theme. The first picture is a piano The next paintings become progressively abstract.

The assignment was to make an imagined landscape.

Julie also took print making and had an assignment where she showed a cat having a dream. She made a lovely print of it - which ended up winning best in show (and got $50). She further explored the theme below. You may not see it, but in the second painting it was supposed to be the same subject but from a different perspective. If you look hard, you can see a little tiny cat and octopus in it.

The assignment here was to paint something from a new article in black and white. Here is a woman going to vote in Afganistan, wearing a burka and showing her picture ID.

The class had an assigment to coordinate paintings with a poem or short story. One of the class members was leaning towards the Twilight vampire series, but Julie convinced them Jabberwocky would be a better topic. Below is the poem, if you've never read it.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought

--So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'

He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.