Saintly St. Ana

We're making a zine! And by "we" I mean my friend, Anne, and I.  There's an annual zine fest in Albuquerque and this year we're going to collaborate and attend! Anne went last year with her own zine and had an awesome time. When I realized that the event was coming up again, it seemed like a good idea to finally attend since I had been meaning to for a while. I was interested in collaborating because I wasn't sure if I could come up with enough content to fill a zine (and keep it engaging) by myself. It's also fun to collaborate in general. I think Anne and I have similar aesthetic interests so it works out well. We're also having other friends contribute so it's going to have lots of different styles and perspectives in it. I'm so excited to be working with friends again. It's something I definitely miss about school. It's easier to get inspired when you have other people's feedback and are able to bounce ideas off each oth...

This is essentially two Weekend Adventures in one because, well, life happens. Last weekend (Labor day weekend) I went to a Purity Ring concert and it was amazing! Definitely exceeded my expectations. They had awesome, over the top lighting that tied the whole experience together. They talk about their show being an experience in  this  interview, plus they play a few songs live and they sound amazing! People love lights, by the way. I really love going to live shows, but I always forget that at larger shows there will always be larger crowds. Seems obvious but for some reason it always takes me by surprise. I always get overwhelmed in those situations but this show was definitely worth enduring it all. Inspired by Purity Ring I also got to go to a very special birthday party last weekend. My friend Beverly came into town and celebrated her daughter's first birthday while they were here! How cuuuuuuuute, right?! Beverly is the first person I've known IRL to ha...

I had one of those weekends where you're too busy doing all the things. I spent a majority of the weekend crashing with one of my oldest friends. Her (new-ish!) fiancé went out of town so she decided to have a girls' weekend at her place. We made cocktails, ate junk food, watched Netflix, slept on an inflatable mattress, and last but not least, listened to a lot of Selena. Like for real, we love Selena. These are things we've been doing since we were in elementary school (minus the cocktails and Netflix for obvious reasons) and it was fun to get to 'relive' those old memories!  Anything for Selenas An old friend of mine happened to be visiting this weekend so I also got to spend some time with him. He moved to Albuquerque for college and is now running for city council there! He's one of the most dedicated and driven people I know. I guess you kinda have to be if you're running for public office in your early twenties!  Salsa Fest was also this ...

Art is never finished, only abandoned. —Leonard0 da Vinci Yeah yeah Leo, I get it. I remember a professor quoted this to me once and I like barfed in my mouth. Who quotes Leonardo da Vinci in an intro level art class? Like who are you??? Well now I'm quoting it at you. It's probably one of the cheesiest things I've ever heard related to creativity (there's a lot of that ish out there), but now I know it's sooooooo true! I feel like every one has looked back at a piece of work and thought to themselves 'I wish I would have done that differently' or at least wondered what else it could have turned out like. Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? I was always under the impression that those tendencies were those of a perfectionist. But I don't think I am a perfectionist, at least when it comes to most things. I stumbled upon this post that led me to the conclusion that, "m aybe creativity is the  act of embracing perennially unfinished ...

I've been going through such a slow and unproductive time creatively. Honestly, most days after I get home from my 8-5 I'd rather just watch mind-numbing television than try and throw myself into a creative frenzy. That probably makes me sound lazy but at least I can be honest with myself about it now. I often used to push myself way too hard because I was afraid of being labeled as lazy when, in actuality, I just needed rest. Anyway, those days are over and I'm down to indulge in some trashy reality television shows whenever my brain just needs a break. Today wasn't one of those days though. I found myself thinking about some collages I made a while ago and I remembered how I had planned to expand on those digitally. I really love working with collages, but it's always nice to give your X-Acto blade a break and be able to Command+Z some ish when you need to. I found a few images that emphasized texture and manipulated them using shape and color. I've ...

Happy last weekend before school starts, guys! Even though I'm not in school any more, it's hard to avoid those back-to-school vibes when you're living in a small college town. The dynamic of our town definitely changes when school starts back up again. The campus traffic is definitely worth avoiding in the mornings, coffee shops are packed again, weeknight events are hard to come by, and bars are kind of the worst. I don't really go to bars that much anyway, but there's a notable (and miserable) difference.  Anyway, here's a couple of (horrible iPhone) photos from this weekend: The Pioneers of Prime Time TV opening for Courtney Marie Andrews at Art Obscura last night! If you ever have a chance to see The Pioneers of Prime Time TV perform, you have to see them. The two man group is absolutely enchanting and the violinist has the voice of an angel. They don't have their newer stuff up on their Soundcloud, but rest assured that it's also...

We are living in a material world and I am a material girl. Madonna knows what I'm talking about. I don't really consider myself materialistic. I like to think that I value real interactions with people and life experiences more than I do objects. But at the same time I'm pretty sentimental and that makes it easy to attach emotions to objects, therefore making it harder to get rid of them. I believe this started early in my life so I'm gonna tell a little story. If you don't wanna stick around for story time feel free to skip ahead! I was always the kind of kid that tried to keep everything. My poor mom had to sneak into my closet when I wasn't around and try and throw out little bits of junk at a time so I wouldn't notice. Like literally junk. I used to collect the cardboard centers of toilet paper and paper towel rolls (I have no idea why). I also had several pencil boxes full of pens and pencils I thought were cool, but were usually broken. There wa...