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.

Thanksgiving day hike

Well - if you come on vacation with me, you usually get suckered into going on a hike. This time we went on a trip to Land Between the Lakes to a path around Hematite Lake - it was 2.2 miles trip.

Garrett admiring a beaver's work.

I like the way the light casts shadows through the trees on this picture.

This was kind of a neat little path across the front of the dam. Little squares to jump over. Howdy and Garrett fell part way in a one point - but it wasn't very deep. After the hike we stopped by the local tourist trap - Patti's settlement. Here is a turkey that somehow survived the festivities.

They had a nice Christmas display, here is Christopher

Thanksgiving 2009

Once again, Thanksgiving time.

This year we arranged for more of our family to be together. We rented two cabins on Land Between the Lakes (it's the slow time of the year) and 22 of us got together. All of Brian and Julie's family, Matt and Julia's family, Paul and Allene's family and Mother and Father.

What would thanksgiving be without pies?

Adam and Suzannah argue over who gets to sit in the chair (the answer was neither of them, they got their own seats at the kids table)

We're all glad that Trent could bring his good attitude and appetite to the meal.

Julie had surgery on her arm right before Thanksgiving, it was a bit rough on her.

Lots of us gathered together.

Jesse's first Thanksgiving. Only a few weeks old.

Kids table

Aubry

Parents table

Load of fun overall. Paul's children got a little sick and had to leave earlier than planned. Julia coordinated most of the cooking and did a super job despite running out of her allergy and asthma medicine. Mom just got to play with grand kids mostly.

Back to real life

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween race

Well,

Today is Halloween. The girls are off with friends - still pretending they are young enough to trick or treat. Sonora is a hobo and Katie is a kinda boar thingy with long silver and black hair. She made the mask out of latex - sculpted the thing and made a cast etc. I'll post a picture eventually.

Noone comes trick or treating where we live - so it was quiet here.

Today was a 10k race in the area (that's 6.2 miles). I set a goal of doing this race. In addition to just being an ambitious goal, there were some major side benefits. One was that prior to race day - the medical center was hosting a free fitness test and the other that there were $10,000 worth of door prizes (I didn't win any - but hey - I had a chance - right?). The free fitness testing thing was OK - but nothing real special.

Anyway, I've never run a 10k race before - and I was a little nervous that I could run that far. 2 weeks ago - I did a 4 mile race - and finished it - but was real tuckered out by the end. I took a vacation day on Tuesday and went running at Mammoth Cave - I like to do that each year. This year has been really rainy - and not conducive to hiking. The leaves changed real rapidly and now they are all falling off unfortunately. I ran for 90 minutes at Mammoth Cave and did maybe 8 miles. My legs and knees were sore the next day but recovered well enough. I figured that if I could run 8 miles on a bunch of hills on a gravel trail, I could do 6 miles on the streets.

There were LOTS of people in the race - my number was 1411 - and I saw some people that had numbers as high as 1700. All I know is that after they fired the starting shot, it took me 30 seconds just to get to the starting line and that it was constant people all the way across the street for a huge part of the run.

Some people ran in costume (not me - I would really overheat if I tried that). The guy right behind me was dressed as frankenstein - green painted face - wig - costume the whole thing. You can see him from the back a few seconds behind me in the video. Everyone erupted in cheers when he ran by (I wasn't under any illusion they were cheering me on - though we were so close it seemed like it)

I finished in just under 60 minutes which was my ambitious goal (I would have been happy with any thing under 65 minutes and thrilled with under 58). I got real tired after about mile 5, and was worried about making it, but got a second wind as I saw we were getting closer to the finish line.


5k season is about over until the spring, so no more races for a while.

Happy Halloween.

Sometimes it just pays to show up

Often, when I'm giving advice to young people I make the point that a lot of success in life just comes with showing up to where you're supposed to be on time. A small thing, but something that escapes many.

A similar theme is "just show up". That advice came home to roost today - to my benefit.

Those who know me, know that I dearly love Mammoth Cave National Park. I'm particularly fond of the trails. I noticed a month ago that they were holding a 5k at Mammoth Cave and well, I just couldn't resist going. It was one of those 5k's where it was required to register in advance (some federal law about collecting funds in a national park I guess). So I mailed in my check for $12 and felt obligated to go.

For several weeks I've really been trying to pick up the pace exercising, I wanted to do decently on this 5k. I've done pretty well exercising - averaging the equivalent of 4 miles a day jogging. I'm a terrible runner though - it has to be my worst talent. No matter how much I work at it, I'm just slow and never get much faster. Still, it's a good way to burn calories and I really love the park, so away I went.

On Friday, I took the day off and Julie and I went canoeing in the park, it was about a 3 hr paddle, we just enjoyed floating down the river for the most part. On the way home I tried to guess where they would do the 5k. I figured they would run out on the road and then head back on the bike trail. I noted a moderate hill before the loop back would occur.

I got to Mammoth Cave about 35 minutes before the race and ran a bit to warm up. Then I asked what the course was and heard that there was no loop - we were heading all the way to Sloan's pond. I was flabbergasted! There was a hill on the trail out that way that was so steep! When I ride my bike there, I put it in the lowest gear and stand up the whole way with the tire spinning gravel all the way up. I gave up on setting a personal best time upon hearing that and just set my goal to be keep running all the way up the hill. I knew I would have to take the first 2.5 miles relatively slow to achieve that goal.

Well the race started, and I stayed in the back, knowing that's where I would end up anyway. It was pretty much as I expected. As we got closer to the hill, there was a skinny fellow running next to me - maybe 50 years old, we just kind of ran side by side. Before the race I believe I had commented to him that the last hill wasn't a hill - it was a mountain.

Well I barely made it up that hill, but I kept my legs going, with the other fellow just beside me. We jogged the last .5 miles after the hill together and then sprinted to the finish line. He pulled away at the end and beat me by 2 seconds or so. When we finished he thanked me for just running along side him. He was very friendly. The card they gave me when I finished said 71 (meaning I was the 71st person to finish). It was about 31 minutes and 40 seconds. I finished my last 5k on a real flat asphalt course in 30 min and 55 sec so I wasn't too disappointed with that.

Well, since there was no loop, we were kind of stuck at the end of the trail. There were supposed to be busses to take us back, but I didn't see them. I saw a lot of folks take off jogging back to the start of the race. I didn't really want to run another 3.1 miles, but everyone else was doing it. That, and I knew the local highschool who sponsored the race would have to pay $2 a head for the bus ride back - so I decided to slowly jog back.

As I started back, I came across a guy named Nick who works at the park and had run the race. I had seem him at other 5k's in the area. He noticed I was looking at his cool watch. He told me it had a built in GPS in it and that it indicates pace and miles run etc. We got to jogging together and talking and caught up with his friend Sue. Sue was working at the park for the summer, so we all jogged along together talking a bit. One other lady joined up with us. We were about the last people to return. We just talked and chit chatted the whole way as we jogged at maybe 5 mph. I virtually never jog slow enough to talk, so that was different for me. They were very friendly and it was very enjoyable. The 3 miles went by quick enough. At the end Sue had hitched a ride for the last mile with some rangers and Nick stopped to talk to somebody he knew who came riding up on a bike. The other lady and I talked for a while. She's new to running, but was telling me some things she had learned and applied about interval training. When we finally got back to the Mammoth Cave hotel parking lot and stopped jogging, she thanked me for running the whole way, saying she never would have done it on her own. I kept running because she was. Peer pressure can sometimes be a good thing.

Well, I usually never stay for the awards, but I did this time. 5k awards are kind of interesting. They award medals for the overall winners, then they give out awards for the top 3 females under 14. Then top three 15-19, top three 20-24 etc. etc up to age 65 or so. Then they repeated for the males. When they got to my age group, I was intrigued to see what fit looking 40-44 year olds look like. This first guy was this tall stringy dude. The second a shorter version of the same with a cool flourescent wicking running shirt. When they got to third place they said "Brian Schuck", to which I exclaimed "no way, how did that happen!?". I mean really - there were probably only 10 people that came in after me.

Well, I actually won a medal in a race. Sometimes it pays just to show up. I had a really nice time jogging and chit chatting with those folks in one of my favorite places, and to top it all off, I got a medal. Sure - it doesn't mean much - you could just as easily said I got a medal for coming in last. But it topped off a real nice morning.

I'm worn out now, must have jogged 6.5 miles today overall, hope to sleep well tonight.