Pink Flutter

Pink Flutter, by Sam Gilliam, is a bright and colorful painting created with acrylic paint on canvas.  This picture (shown below, but in person is brighter) immediately caught my attention with the bright colors and splattering of paint. 

 

The pinks, purples, and oranges remind me of a forest at sunrise. The dark, vertical streaks of color resemble the thick trunks of trees and the splattering of paint looks like rain drops lightly falling from the branches. This painting really struck me because it reminds me of my house when I was growing up.  I grew up in a wooded area, surronded by cornfields and tree-lined paths.  This painting is an abstract picture of the trees lining my childhood road, North Lake Drive, the morning after a storm.

 

This picture makes me sad and happy at the same time.  Sad, because I miss home while I'm at school and the beauty surrounding the town I grew up in.  But happy at the same time because it brings back such happy memories from my past.  I feel that I need to take the time to explore more of the beauty of Madison, instead of just the city and the litter that seems to play too big of a part of it.

 

Halloween

Holloween has always generated mixed feelings for me.  It's that time of year where fall seems to be getting too cold and once it passes, all there is to look forward to are finally completing midterms and, if you survive it, Christmas break.  However, there are some good things that come with the Holloween.

Candy.  It's been a passion of mine all my life.  My mom never could get me to eat healthy.  It was either candy, cookie dough, or butter, or food being spit into my napkin and fed to my dog.  The candy obsession continued when my mom would send me off to hockey camp during the summer and instead of packing my gatorade and granola bars like my older sister, me and my friend packed donuts, candy, and beef jerky.  This sweet tooth has stuck with me into my college years.  I'm now 22 years old, have endured many cavities and root canals, but when you get one of those chocolate cravings, you've just got to give in.  Anyway, back to the subject of Halloween. This festive holiday gives me an excuse to endulge without judgement.

Costumes have always given me anxiety.  I don't know what it is about getting dressed up in a costume that irritates me so much.  I think it can be rooted back to my traumatic childhood experiences with costumes.  My mom thought it would be cute to make all of the kids in my family dress up like disney characters. I got daffy duck.  The duck would have been fine, if it butt didn't shake so horrificly every time I took a step.  Then there was Jasmine (from Aladdin of course).  The costume by itself was actually pretty cool, but I spent the entire night throwing up at my aunts house and then the next day all over my mom's car.  Since then there have been generic firefighter costumes, ghostbuster girls, and last minute greek goddesses. They all have just left me cold and sloppy wandering on state street at night.  I do have one costume I don't regret though, a ketchup bottle complete with a pointed hate and a best friend endorned as mustard.

Another positive about Halloween are the scares. I will never turn down a good haunted house or scary movie and definately need to partake is those festivities as soon as I complete my third midterm this week.  Going along with this, of course, are pumpkins. Whether your carving them, eating them (the seeds), or just enjoying their presence, I've got nothing bad to say about pumpkins, but do have a few negative words for those hoodlums that think it's funny to smash them. 

While I may have had some negative feelings about Halloween, or at least those particular bad memories that come with it, I'm planning on making the best out of this one and partaking in all the festivities. I'm even going to attempt to think of a good costume, so if you're got any good ideas, throw em this way ;)

Autumn!

Growing up in a small, picturesque town in Wisconsin, there are many things that I have come to associate with Autumn.  The changing leave colors, the brisk chill in the air, and the nights of football games.  Returning home this past weekend to relax with my family brought me back to those memories from my childhood.

 

I was lucky enough to venture home for a weekend where my two favorite seasons collided: summer and fall.  It was a weekend full of comfort foods and entertainment characteristic of fall, with the lingering presence of a long, peaceful summer coming to an end.  As I layed out on my pier for one last time this year, I was perfectly content, lounging in my swim suit (in October!), observing the warm fall colors that had transformed the landscape since I had last been home. My dogs, Darby and Abby, also seemed to be well aware that their days of swimming were coming to a close, and spent the afternoon fishing, in Darby's case, and diving for rocks, in Abby's (strange I know).

 

 

That evening, the all-mighty Arrowhead Warhawks had a "hugeee" football game that the whole town was gearing up for.  My sister Bridget got all dressed up for the "red-out" that would be taking place in the student section and left for home hours before in order to tailgate for the game.  I pictured in my head a tailgate full of kids getting wayyy to hyped up on redbull and 5 hour energies and told Bridget that she had to come to Madison to take part in some real tailgate festivities, but I remembered those fall days during highschool where the whole school seemed to look forward to those brisk, friday night football games. 

 

The next day I went for a walk in Monches park with my parents and the dogs and was once again grateful for another day suitable for shorts and hopefully a bit of a tan. The foliage was speckled with the burnt orange, amber, and beige colors of fall. The leaves of autumn always remind me of my childhood home.  Spence Road was lined with great big trees that the neighbors and I would play pom pom pola-way between and build tree forts in for the "beaver club" (beaver because we lived on beaver lake).  There was a go-cart track behind my house where we would cruise along the corn fields and towards the path we called "the secret garden".

 

More then anything fall reminds me of family.  Days spent lounging by the fireplace and watching the packers.  Nights spent cheering on my highschool team and then retreating to a friends house.  I was happy to reminense on some of my memories of autumn while I was home this weekend.  I returned Monday morning with a little pack full of fall comforts courtesy of mom: pumpkin bread, zukkini muffins, apples, and of course, chilli. I'm planning on taking advantage of every second of this beautiful fall weather while I can, and am praying that the blistering winter takes a lot longer to encroach upon us.