Guess what??

I got into the BFA program!! 

I'm excited to have that to come back to after my mission.

80's dance party

Our apartment decided to have one last dance party to end the semester. We went with the 80's theme and rocked it. It was way fun to dance the night away and catch up with some good friends.

Eat, Drink and be Married!

The roommates and I threw Courtney a bridal shower last Saturday and it turned out so well. It was so fun to celebrate her and her exciting new life with Jonathan. I am so excited for them both and so happy that they found each other because they are such a cute couple. They are so good to each other and so funny! I'm glad that I can have the claim that I was there from the beginning of their relationship because he was both of our hometeacher. I'm so thankful for the friendship that Court and I have and could not be happier for her. I'm so excited that I get to be there for her wedding :) Yay for love!

We made both cheese and chocolate fondue, which were a huge success. The spread turned out pretty great.

We played some games, including Courtney answering questions about her and Jonathan and if she got it wrong she had to put a marshmallow in her mouth...don't ask me why. But it was fun to hear both Court and Jonathan's perspectives on their love story.

Cute Alissa and Court enjoying the good eats.

Friends since 6th grade :)

The group:

The roomies:

I love you Court!!! So happy for you and can't wait to see what the future holds for both of us!

Festival of Colors

A couple of weeks ago we ventured out to Spanish Fork to the Indian Temple for the festival of colors. It was great. The festival is a pretty funny experience because there are a ton of people and you are just walking around trying to stay with your friends while random people throw colorful chalk at you (usually right in your eyes), but it is still way fun. It's a crazy experience when everyone throws the chalk at once because it literally goes dark and you can't breathe for a good minute. It makes for some awesome pictures though! I know that I'm happy to welcome Spring and all of its beautiful colors.

Life lately...

 Life has been great lately. I've been busy with lots of work and play. Life is about balance right? Gotta have both :) These are just some random things that have happened over the past month.

Kelsi and our somewhat matching pants on Pi day.

On St. Patrick's Day I spoke in church and we made green clover pancakes and delicious ebelskivers. 

Melissa told me that she found these cute little pies at Walmart, so Kelsi and I decided to try making our very own homemade pie shakes out of the baby pies. They were worth all of the trouble to make them. We would highly recommend a homemade pecan pie shake ;)

Our ward had a ward clue party that was pretty awesome. I had to go late after going to a friend's bridal shower, so I didn't dress up, but everyone else went all out especially our Bishop and his wife. It was way fun!

New Genre: Installation

For my latest New Genre project I decided to do another installation piece. I was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy and his site-specific nature installations. 

I went to a park close to where I live and I found this tree that is huge, awesome and had a lot of pine cones that had fallen on the ground underneath it and then I just started going for it. It started out as just a formal, aesthetic piece similar to my first installation with all of the prints, but after I created it I realized that there was a lot of personal meaning in it as well. The title is Passing Through and it came to be a representation of noticing the world around us and a type of journey that we all pass through.

Happy birthday Matthew!!

I know this post is a little late, but I wanted to give a shout out to my little brother Matthew who turned 17 on April 5th. It still blows my mind that Matthew is 17 because I personally still feel like I am 17 sometimes. Matthew is one of the coolest people I know. He is hilarious, kind, super fast at running, dedicated, sweet, intelligent, artistic and just all around awesome. I feel honored to claim him as my younger brother. I'm so proud of you Matt and can't wait to party it up with you in just a couple of weeks!

Love you!!

The Importance of Art

I've been thinking a lot about the importance of art and art education this semester since I am in an art education class and have applied to the BFA program at BYU. I stumbled upon this commencement speech given by Dana Gioia at Stanford in 2007. You should read it. These were some of my favorite parts: 

"Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world—equal to but distinct from scientific and conceptual methods. Art addresses us in the fullness of our being—simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses. There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images."

"Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions. And it remembers. As Robert Frost once said about poetry, 'It is a way of remembering that which it would impoverish us to forget.' Art awakens, enlarges, refines, and restores our humanity. You don't outgrow art. The same work can mean something different at each stage of your life. A good book changes as you change."