so far so good!

why hello there my beautiful family and friends, 

it has been a VERY busy week and a half since i last relayed some groovy info back to ya. groovy; lets bring that back, shall we? k. done. 

so last week? maybe two weeks ago? days are a blur here. anyways; at some point i got very sick with a fever and possibly strep throat. while everyone was touring the BEAUTIFUL Aran Islands, i was in bed with theraflu and a blanky. i can't decide who got the better end of that deal. just kidding. i'm upset i couldn't go but it was worth feeling better for the rest of this quick little trip. so lets see, what's been going on?! so much but i don't know how much is worth really telling. 

i also don't have many pictures to show you, as i use film and can't develop it yet. 

but i do have a few. 

so last week i presented my video project and it was well received to my relief :) i enjoyed making it, despite how long i stayed up to do so!

the day after our critique we went to learn Irish Ceili dancing. let's just say it isn't exactly the sharp cheerleading hip hop i'm used to, nor the beautiful and rhythmic bar dancing i've been graced with in the past two years. the 57 year old couple with serious skills did help me quite a bit, but once the spinning started, it didn't stop. thank you sir Jameson and Diet Coke.  

Ceili Dancing

The night of Ceili dancing was absolutely eventful meeting new people from the towns and spending our last night with the other group that was studying at the school along with ours. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were given to us to go wherever we wanted or just to have a weekend to ourselves and break from school. a few people went to London, while i few stayed home. Three of my friends and I all decided to go to Dublin for Saturday night and it was absolutely wonderful! like New Orleans, but more pleasing to the senses; especially the nostrils. 

homemade cappuccino <3

before we blindly entered the city without a hostel, a bus ticket, or an idea of what we were about to do, we were offered a ride to the bus station by one of our new friends who owns a restaurant in the village. we were a little early so he opened his restaurant and made us homemade lattes and cappuccinos; wonderful way to start a 4 hour bus ride. 
(p.s., caffeine and Dramamine aren't exactly best friends.)

Dublin

When we arrived, we were greeted by a Mardi Gras sized party for Gay Pride Week. One of the craziest parties i've ever been to as well as the most fun. First, we stopped and had lunch at this little place called Elephant and Castle. BEST BURGER EVER. and homemade ginger ale that was pretty fantastic. Before we headed down to party for the evening, we stopped and toured St. Patrick's Cathedral (the most beautiful and breathtaking place i've ever been, by the way), as well as Trinity College Garden, the Guinness Brewery, Temple Bar (French Quarter) and all around the city. 

Elephant Burger..

...didn't last long

Outside the Brewery

We then headed down to a pub and met some awesome people from Australia, Brazil, Canada, and lovely Wisconsin. They were all attending an organized pub crawl. We somehow ended up not paying for it and tagging along the entire night! it was so much fun. We met some fantastic and hilarious people all while experiencing some incredibly interesting pubs. some like raves and nightclubs while others were almost historical. After a very exciting and hectic night, we headed back to our last minutely found hostel, which doubled as a pizza place. so we got half off food which was lovely. 


The next morning we woke up bright and early and ate a cute cafe called The Queen of Tarts, drank coffee, ate an omelet, and headed down for a tour of the Old Jameson Distillery where we ended the tour with a complementary beverage. Love. Jameson. It's a wonderful thing here.  


We took a very long bus ride home, and then a very odorous cab ride back to our little (or not so little) Orchard house. 


The rest of the week looks like lots of water color paintings and sculptures that i have barely made a dent in, but i decided to take a little break to update on life! however, there wasn't much school info in this, it has continued to be an amazing trip of a lifetime. 

Pub Crawl!

tomorrow we're doing a guided hike in the mountains and later in the week we'll meet up with the LSU in Ireland group for dinner and drinks in town and we'll end the week in Galway touring once again! 

St. Patrick's

inside St. Patrick's

Patrick met a Leprechaun!

i hope all is well back home and love and miss everyone!


Be Blessed in Jesus' Name,


Katie Joy

art so far...

I've posted a little bit of what we've done but i'll continue to update y'all with what stage of my projects i'm at. 


Water Color:
so i've never painted before, up until Monday or Tuesday of last week, other than paint but numbers so water color was a bit intimidating. however, the difference between my first and second paintings are well worth sharing haha. i shall post the picture of what i was painting as well. it's the castle on campus here. 

Embarrassing first attempt

Second attempt

Sculpture/Digital/Photography/Not really sure what this class is but we do lots of art, ya heard? :)

first project:
Objective: create a 100 inch line in space, suggested or otherwise. use materials found around the campus. 


i will post a better picture of it later, but this is the best i can do for now, this is before the flowers were finished. they ended up following that "S" curve down to the last circle and ending in a full circle at the bottom. 

setting it up for critique 

a little detail for you

not a completed picture but all i have at the moment

Better pics of the sculpture:

Our second project was to "Design A Minute" in which "one minute" was pretty much the only guideline.. some painted, some danced, etc. i decided to do a stop motion film which is where you take hundreds of photographs and piece them together at a high speed to create a film-like project. i if you need help understanding it, just ask. i'd like to see if anyone can get it on their own. 

That's pretty much all i have at the moment, unless you'd like to see my studio wall that i frequently doodle on.... sure. i'll show ya

so much catching up to do!

so i have absolutely NO idea where to start. lets see... 

I think last time i posted a fun little diddy was when i was working on my first sculpture project. it was a very hard thing to describe but i think it came out really well! i don't have a picture to post at the moment but i will get on very soon. 

second attempt at water color.. not
fantastic but far better than the first
attempt :)

i also started water color for the first time and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't look like a two year old did it. 

okay, now for the fun part!

last night we had an Irish storyteller visit our house and share awesome stories of all the old Irish folklore. he was one of the funniest people i have ever seen tell a story. we heard about the evil weasels, the curse of the fairies and fairy trees, and all the little tales so many have grown up believing here. afterwords our professors took us to the Hyland's pub and treated us to fish and chips and Bulmer's Cider. It was a lovely shindig to end a crazy first week of class..

now for today!

absolutely AMAZING.

we got a tour of the entire Burren and all of the surrounding towns. We started off at an bridge overlooking the town that used to be an original fort. i was slightly tired at the beginning of this tour but mostly we were informed of cattle and farming and why there are no longer young people in this town. we then left to go to St. Bridget's healing well and cemetery. in the cave to the actual well there are shrines to loved ones that have past on as well as beautiful letters and mementos. it's one of the many holy wells of ireland. afterwards we toured the Cliffs of Moher, which stop at a 197 ft straight drop to the ocean. we also got to tour the Kilfenora Cathedral and Cemetery as well as see one of the original 7 high crosses of Kilfenora (5 remain). in that town i found a little shop that had the Crawford crest and history on our family once they moved to Ireland from Scotland. my favorite part of the afternoon was climbing the cliffs to watch rock climbing and sit in the sun. we had an amazingly beautiful tour guide who was incredibly gifted in retaining information, a part of my brain i never got control over; he also shared in my love of music and is going to see Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire and a number of other bands in Paris in a few weeks, sadly, with his girlfriend :(. sad day. oh well, at least i found my idea of perfection; good musical interest, intellect, accent, and ability to narrate walks through the most beautiful country i can imagine. that last one is a recent request in a husband. 

PICTURE TIME!!!!

"The main glories of the historically rich cathedral village of Kilfenora are its high crosses. The village was often referred to as the city of the seven crosses. They were erected probably back in the 12th century. The crosses marked out the boundary of the local church. They were also monuments that celebrated local achievements and reinforced the strong Christian faith."

view from St. Bridget's

Cliffs of Moher

197 ft drop from these cliffs

across from the cliffs

hard to tell how high up we were until:

that little speck on the rock is a rock climber at the base of the cliff. scary fall

PERFECTION

i'm sorry this post is somewhat choppy and short; i have a project due tomorrow and have to run to my studio. i hope all is well wherever you are reading from and i wish all the padre's a happy daddy day! enjoy your kiddos macaroni cards while i attempt to find awesome irish souvenirs. everyone likes authentic celtic rocks i hand selected right? oh wait, baggage weight limit.. maybe i'll give everyone a picture of a rock i hand selected. JUST KIDDING! i'll find something suitable for all :)

i love you all so much! have a blessed evening, morning, afternoon, whatever time of day you may be in.

LOVE ALL THE WAY FROM IRELAND!

   Katie Joy

6.15.11

Well hi there,


sorry i take so long in between posts. It's very nonstop in our little town in Ireland. Two days ago we started our classes, or should i say artistic development :). we arrive at school around 930 and get about a half hour demo for each of our two classes then we have roughly 6 hours to ourselves to collect supplies and work. our studios are open 24/7 so we tend to stay into the night and work. I know i've said this a few times, but i am incredibly happy here. without the distractions of the everyday life; work, gen ed classes, phones, facebook, and even things as little as driving. Inspiration is found so easily in such a beautiful and secluded space. our first sculpture project is due tomorrow morning! i will most likely be working into tomorrow morning to get things just right. It is incredibly hard to explain what to project entails, but basically, we have to create a 100 in line is space; suggested or otherwise, and are only allowed to use things we find. thank goodness supplies in nature are so readily available here! it's so nice to have a large studio space to sprawl out and accomplish projects. my studio looks like a tree threw up in it, but the project is coming together  nicely. This weekend we are getting a full tour of the Burren and all the history around it and we also get to hear an old Irish storyteller share his tales of "fairy trees" and other tales of old Ireland. I wish i had more for you, but all i can say is that i'm doing well, the people are amazing and we already are such a close family (i guess 16 to a house kinda have to be :]), and we are growing at such a faster rate than i ever imagined. time to go do water colors :)


Be Blessed in Jesus' Name,
        Katie Joy 

Ballyvaughan, Ireland

why hello there!


i'm sorry i haven't written sooner, but since i haven't this will be a super long post! so much has happened in these 3 days; nothing but wonderful times.



The first thing i'd like to mention is how incredibly amazing the people on this trip are. in no time at all we have become the closest little family. as much as i questioned if i was in the right field, or doing what's right with me with art; i feel completely at home and at peace here, surrounded by amazingly talented, good hearted and loving people. I could go on for hours about them. i've gotten incredibly close to each one in so little time that i know this is the right thing to do with my life. 

street spray artist

but back to a few days ago:

the morning of the day we were to depart for the school, we decided to tour Galway one last time. The entire time i had Celtic Thunder's "Galway Girl" stuck in my head but it added stunning background music to the beautiful scenery. We stopped to see a few street artists which were beyond incredible. one artist does spray paint landscapes that you honestly wouldn't believe unless you saw the process with your own eyes; however, i did see it and i still can't fathom the beauty he captures with such a difficult medium. SO INSPIRING!! 

Anyways. after that lovely journey, we started our travels to Ballyvaughn, Ireland where the Burren College of Art is. on our way we saw plenty of cows, one of which i named Bubba. also, we discovered that traffic jams in Ireland involved 100 cows travelling down the road. cows are not swift. don't believe any lies you've been told. however, we did learn, that you do not mess with the bulls. they do not enjoy jokes :)

BUBBA!

As we arrived to our house, "The Orchard House" we were absolutely in awe. it is beyond beautiful. and i was lucky enough to get my own room! its so nice and the views are beautiful. Our neighbors have plenty of chickens that like to visit as well as lots of cows that come to say hello. After we arrived i was beyond blessed to see a van roll down the driveway with MY LUGGAGE! i have never been more excited to see my clothes and toiletries. best shower i've had in a while. funny thing about ireland, the toilet flushes backwards and the handle is on the opposite side. so confusing. im quickly realizing how habitual life is back home. i love being out of my comfort zone. it's like no other place here. the people are more excited to see us than we ever expected. they truly are some of the sweetest people i have ever met. The night we got in town we went to L'Arco, a beautiful Italian restaurant where we all bonded and shared a bottle of pinot grigio. (don't worry mom, i'm of age here ;]) 

The Orchard House aka Home

outside the Italian Restaurant 

the following day, however, i decided to catch up on some much needed sleep so nothing entirely too amazing happened. being here is amazing in itself. 

Our college/castle <3

Today we woke up extra early and ate a lovely family breakfast before anxiously awaiting the arrival of our van like giddy kindergardeners. OUR SCHOOL IS BEAUTIFUL. it is around this beautiful little castle right down the road from our house. the view is fantastic and so peaceful. before lunch, a few of us went to frolic in the fields while sketching and talking and it was absolutely incredible. the most exciting part is patrick and i are studio buddies! yes, we have a whole studio to ourselves. i can tell this trip will be one i never want to end. I wish i could write more but class-time calls! :)

View from school

Patrick and me in our STUDIO!

email me or comment if you would like to stay in touch!

Be blessed in Jesus' Name,

              Katie Joy