20!

There are a mere 10 days left of my twenties.  As such, I will take each of those ten days, to review the last ten years of my life.

So today, we review year 20.

Year 20 was the calm between storms.  My second year at BYU, when I was 19, was tough academically and socially.  My fourth year was a turmoil of all sorts of emotions.  But my third year at BYU, my 20th year, was pretty amazing.

me and Shawn

I was dating Shawn Patterson on my 20th birthday.  I didn't really like him all that much but my roommate of the previous two years was sick of me pining over Greg so thought I should date Shawn.  He was nice enough but he smelt weird.  We broke up shortly after my birthday.  I was not sad.  I also dated a boy named Matt Brownell that year.  I threw a shoe at the wall when we broke up, but we over it when he called me to make up a few weeks later.  And there was Jed.  He told me that the heather flower makes you pee if you crush it up and drink it.

Me, Amy, and my forever roommate Julie

In fact, that year, my 20th year, was one of my most fun years.  I was in my third year at BYU and living at Foxwood Apartments with my roommate from the previous two years, and three other random girls--which meant relatively few roommate issues because we didn't hang out too much.  I'm still friends with a few of those girls though.  Most of my friends from my previous two years at BYU were either on missions or I had dated all of them and we had moved on, so I was on the prowl for new friends.   I made several new friends from lots of different circles, which meant that I had something to do every weekend and lots of options.  I spent every weekend of that year on a date(s) or at a party.  For once, I was the popular girl.  I was also obsessed with Metzner that year--my very casual friend's band.

I also bought my first car that year--1987 Toyota Camry for $1000 from one of my dad's cousins.

Me, Kristi, and my sister Amber at a football game

School was also pretty easy that year.  I had been accepted to my major and started in the Education program at BYU.  My classes were super interesting with the perfect degree of challenge.  Week days I was on campus by 8 am for class, then alternated between class, tutoring at the PS 100 lab, holding office hours for History 202, and with my new boyfriend, Harold B. Lee (that's the library--the boys who wanted to date me all called the library my boyfriend because I spent so much time there).  I got home from campus around 7, ate dinner, then went running with my friend Pierce.  We'd then shower--separately--and be back on campus by 10pm, then we'd study until midnight and leave the library with the music every week night.  The super nerd in me loved it.

Pierce, Greg's sister Andrea (who I stalked just a little bit), me and my sister Amber

When school got out in April, I left for a service abroad in Ecuador.  After spending a year learning about colonization and multicultural practices, I was a little messed up academically when I got there.   I wasn't sure how to respond to the different cultural practices.  Nevertheless, I had a great time.  I spent nearly 3 months working in several orphanages all over the city of Cuenca and picked out a few babies to adopt.  The last week of my stay in Ecuador, I went to the Amazon River Basin for some touring.  I ate the best chocolate of my life there and got super fat in just the few days I was there.  Not to worry, I soon lost the weight and some because...

My group in Ecudaor

My roommate in Ecuador--Marissa Payne.  Great girl.

Just before I came home and just before my 21st birthday, Greg got home from his mission and a year of angst and uncertainty began.

Gallery Stroll

Tonight was our gallery stroll and the grand opening of our art gallery.  And it went great.  We'd like to thank everyone who came out to make the evening a success.  I'd also like to thank Greg for giving me all my birthday presents early to make the night even better. First, I got a bluetooth speaker, that sounds amazing, so we could play the appropriate gallery opening music.  Then I got a backyard fire pit for our after opening s'more making.

And now for a million pictures for all you who couldn't attend.

First, we looked the art work with the appropriate music playing.

Then we headed outside for s'mores, popsicles, and socializing, and that's when I put the camera down.  But, as mentioned, we ended up with a good crowd and had fun.

And here are the pieces we created for this show.  To be honest, I didn't really think through this whole art show thing.  In teacher terms, I didn't define my scope and sequence before beginning so things were a little made-up and ragged.  I had my final project in mind (the gallery stroll) but didn't set a clear path for how to get there.  Had I taken the time to make a scope and sequence, we could have learned a lot more about geography (where famous artists lived, where they painted, where certain movements took place) and history (the "when" to all the previous parenthesised items) in addition to learning about art, but I didn't.  On the bright side, because we were just going at this haphazard, I didn't get too stressed about doing things "right."  If my kids were driving me crazy in the afternoon, I'd get out the art history book we checked out at the library, turn to a page, read about a piece of art, look at other examples on Google, maybe look at the location of the painting, and then get out the various art supplies I keep on hand because all moms keep lots of art supplies around.  In conclusion, we could have learned more, but I think we learned enough and we had a good time.

We learned about landscape paintings one day so we went hiking at a nearby park and did some landscape drawings.

"Dragonfly Pond," Greg Baker, colored pencil on paper

"Lake Land," by Rex Baker, colored pencil on paper

"Pointy Face," by Alice Baker, colored pencil on paper

"Unfinished Lake," by Heather Baker, colored paper on pencil

Then one day we looked the Mona Lisa and a few of Pablo Picasso's self-portraits and then made our own.  This is also the section of the exhibit where we introduced the artists.

 Greg Baker is a 30-year-old full-time starving artist. He likes to do rather than to have done. He gets his visionary artistic visions from teenage angst. Not his teenage angst, just teenage angst in general. That, and huffing the lead fumes from burning circuit boards, but mostly from angst.

"Self-Portrait," by Greg Baker, oil pastel on paper

 Alice Baker is a 3-year-old, soon-to-be ballet dancer. She enjoys rolling around on the floor, reading stories, swimming, and play with stuffed animals.  She draws inspiration from her head.   When she grows up she wants to play with Mom.

"Pretty Face," by Alice Baker, oil pastel on paper

Rex Baker is a 6-year-old, rising first grader.  He likes to make sculptures out of clay, ride his bike, make designs, play Minecraft, and read books.  He gets his artistic inspiration from Grandpa Brian and looks forward to being an aeronautical engineer.

"Silly Face," by Rex Baker, oil pastel on paper

 Henry Baker is a 16-month-old professional mess-maker.  He enjoys dumping all the cars out, using pots and pans as drums, and playing in any sort of water.  His art pieces are all designed to make the biggest mess possible.

"Self-Portrait," by Henry Baker, oil pastel on paper

 Heather Baker is a 29.99 year old secret professional international art thief. She frequently runs long distances in preparation for her next heist. She gets her inspiration from unadulterated greed and the ceaseless lust for filthy lucre. She is the inspiration for Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character in the the movie “Entrapment” and George Clooney’s character in the movie “Ocean’s Eleven”.

"Family Portrait," by Greg Baker, pen on card stock

"Cakey Face," by Alice Baker, beads in magic clay

"Race Race," by Rex Baker, beads in magic clay

"Tornado," by Greg Baker, beads in magic clay

"Brain," by Henry Baker and Heather Baker, beads in magic clay

 On day we learned about the earliest type of art--cave drawings.  This is a joint piece by the family and is replica of the Lascaux cave paintings in France. This was also the most difficult piece as I had the kids use pieces of charcoal to draw.   You can see in the right-hand corner where Alice gave up and used chalk instead.  I taped this one under the piano and then built a fort around it the day we drew it to simulate a cave.

 One day we studied Impressionism and compared several Impressionist landscapes to the Realists landscapes of previous decades.

"Autumn Scene," by Greg Baker, water color on card stock

"The Three Sunflowers," by Rex Baker, water color on card stock

"Flower Field," by Rex Baker, water color on card stock

"Cranky Face," by Alice Baker, water color on card stock

"Summer Storm," by Henry Baker and Heather Baker, water color on card stock

"Zoomy Face," by Alice Baker, water color on card stock

"Ball World," by Rex Baker, magic clay

"Cakeball,"by Rex Baker, magic clay

"Rock Stone," by Alice Baker, magic clay

"Michelangelo," by Alice Baker, magic clay

"Noah" (it was supposed to be "Moses" but I messed up), by Heather Baker, magic clay

"Michelangelo," by Rex Baker, magic clay

 Our first project was the Sistine Chapel.  This was again a collaborative effort.  To do this, I taped craft paper to the underside of of a table so we had to lay on the floor to create this piece.  This was done in crayon and then displayed on the ceiling for our show.

Next we head down the hall.  We learned about Post or Late-Impressionism one day, specifically we looked at Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon and tried out pointillism.

"Finger Prints," by Henry Baker, washable paint on card stock

"Pretty Fan-ah," by Alice Baker, washable paint on card stock

"Flower Dots," by Rex Baker, washable paint on card stock

"Design World," by Rex Baker, washable paint on card stock

"Crana-Paina Face," by Alice Baker, washable paint on card stock

 Our last project was photography.  For this we looked several of Dorothea Lang's portraits from the Depression.  The kids didn't really stick with her themes for their projects.

"Summer Flowers," by Alice Baker, photograph

"Mom's Garden," by Rex Baker, photograph

*Originals will be bound in a book, but copies are available upon request.  Check with artist for related fees.  Contact artist for commissioned original fees.