Winter has hit the Midwest, and hard. One day, the temperatures were at sixty five degrees, and three days later the high was a beautiful twenty three, and it has stayed there or below since. I guess I should get used to this Kansas weather, and one would think that I have already, sine I was born and raised her, but with the sudden changes, it just does a number on you.
The reason why I am mentioning the weather is due to the snow in the forecast. As someone who rides their bicycle everywhere, this is going to be horrible for me. I still ride my bike everyday from my home to Baker University, but only the two mile round trip. With snow on the ground however, that will limit me to walking. Yet, there is some good that will come of the snow, when and if it hits. That is photographs. I love living in this small town in the winter just for at one simple fact. The city has a "lost in time" feel who the snow hits. It almost shuts down completely and the images that can come from it are just amazing as I found out last winter.
This semester at Baker is almost done. I cannot believe that my career at this institution, which I am now closing out my second year at, will be coming to an end in one years time. I feel like I have done so much here, but still not enough. Aside from taking every single art history class the school has to offer, I have also been treasurer, vice-president and president of its art club, been an employee of the college library an the head researcher and curator of its world famous bible and renaissance to romantic print museum. I have been able to make a few good connections and meet some amazing people. I think I will a be able to cherish a lot of moments from this institution.
i have finished the biggest drawing that I have ever done in my life. It is a four foot by four foot self portrait of myself (image below). It turned out pretty well, but not exactly how I had hoped. The eyes are what bother me the most. I do have some time I can work on that, finish it up a little more and maybe do another drawing, since I will have almost a month off from every thing except for a few hours here and there the museum. So outside of reading this winter, I might work on a new drawing. It will be fun.
I did do some more ceramics in these past few months, but none of them turned out the way I wanted to at all. Most of them ended up in the trash bin behind the ceramics building at Baker. I will try again in January and see what I come up with. I hope this time around they come out better.
That is about it for this update. More to come at a different time. Thank you for reading.
Self portrait - copyright 2013 Chris Ortiz