I entered a small photography competition, around 90-100 photos with a maximum of 5 entries per person. I submitted the maximum. I won honorable mention for Naxos Sunset, second place for my portrait, Child Portraiture Study 11, second place for my photograph of the Temple of Apollo at sunset, and first place as well as best of show for my photograph "The Resting Place".
I'm so excited that 4/5 entries placed. I saw the other photographs in the opening gallery and they were amazing. I'm shocked I won!

I'll get those others uploaded when I can.

I'm back from my trip to Greece with many photos to upload!
Also, I've created the sketch for the mural that will go on the building in the Vietnam Memorial Park in Philippi, WV. I start working on it asap, so I'll try to have progress pics uploaded. Also, this summer, onelinnovations will also be working on the mural with me. Others will be working on it when the semester begins again and they are within range of travel to help out. We will be painting all four sides of the building.

Please be patient with me over the next few days or so. I have completed a semester of college and have not had much time to upload new work so, your deviantions may be overloaded with my work.

Thanks.

I'm so excited. I get to be a part of a mural project in the town of my college. As, President of "The Art Guild (TAG)" on campus, after being asked to paint the mural, decided to make it a go! Other student artists are participating as well including a couple that I know are on DA (ophelia-the-elf and onelinnovations). It's so amazing to be a part of a project so large and so important and I can't wait to get it started.

Today I had the opportunity to show some of my art to a preparatory class of Japanese exchange students. My newspaper advisor, Dr. Wilkie, had an article that he wanted me to write, so I met up with him in Elkins, WV. He is teaching the prep class so he asked me to bring some art with me and speak to them during one of his classes.

I have the worst navigation skills of anyone I've ever been aquainted with. When my boyfriend first gave me directions to his place, I passed it up about seven times before he finally came outside to wait on me and I knew where to pull in. I expected the same today when I made it to Davis and Elkins College to speak with the Japanese students, however I didn't lose my way. The first place I searched for parking happened to be where Dr. Wilkie had asked me to park and I made my way into the right building the first time.

Dr. Wilkie met me in the hallway and we went in. Speaking with the Japanese students was a very pleasant experience. We spoke about my drawings, photography and paintings at first. At the end of that, I was running out of things to talk about (yes, me), but the students had several questions about college in America. Two primary concerns they shared were about roomates and making friends.

They wanted to know if rooming with someone was difficult so I explained to them that it isn't always. Some people make agreeable pairs and some don't. There are ways to get out of a bad roomate situation and they don't have to tolerate any nonsence, but that the expirience of rooming with someone was worth their time. They were worried also that the fact they are foriegn might create roomate problems, but I assured them that it just makes the experience more interesting. They asked about communication issues and I gave them the web address to freetranslation.com, of course.

They were worried about making friends in college, because of their differences, but I assured them that differences were the links of most friendships; and that I haven't whitnessed a single foreign exchange student who wasn't popular among the student body, in high school or in college. Their different background sparks creativity and interest and naturally curious North Americans would be drawn in by that.

These students had been studying English since their "7th Grade" equivalent to USA's. Even with that much studying their English is a little difficult to understand, but nothing that can't be figured out with concentration. The biggest difficulty is their accent. They didn't seem to have any trouble understanding me, however. They would add in unnecessary words and scramble phrases from time to time, but I think they were just a little nervous.

It was definately a great experience and I would love to do it again sometime.

After the class ended, Dr. Wilkie treated me to Mexican food, and then we went to Hermondilly's (an organic toddler clothing shop, and the source of my newspaper article). My sister was having a baby, so I stuck around to shop after the interview. They sell these suckers called preggie pops for ease during labor. So, naturally, I had to pick up a pack for my sis.

Anyway, I have this cute idea for a bib I wanted to make for the baby. The bib is 3 layers and the top layer says, "I love my mommy and..." lift up that layer and, "I love my daddy but..." lift up that layer and, "I love my aunt Melissa more. That's why this part of the bib stays cleaner." The owner of Hermondilly's agreed to make the bib for me and I'm allowing her to market the idea by replacing "aunt Melissa" with more common words like, "Uncle, aunt, sister, brother, grandma, and grandpa, ect." I'm sure she can make them custom by request though. The website is [link] but it is under construction until Oct. 1.


Anyway, that's my day.