Farewell

Sarah's Cross began in 2009 as I prepared to spend a semester in London during undergrad. It found new life as I moved cross-country to attend graduate school in Savannah, and revisited its original purpose as I returned to London in 2013 for an internship during grad school. It has been a fun journey and an excellent way to document my experiences and life lessons. I am now embarking on a new journey, and even though my 50 Weeks of Creativity challenge is still open, I have decided it's time to put this blog to rest. I am entering an archival status, where this blog will remain for the memories and projects I have shared. For anyone who joined me on my travels, thank you. It has been a fun journey, and I hope this has only been the beginning for my one wild and precious life.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week 29

There's a first time for everything, isn't there? Well, this week marks the end of my summer camp, but with it came a first for me: painting. Camp painted a mural on a bridge in Midland, right down the street from my high school. While I spent most of the time supervising, I did lend my hand for a bit of the painting itself. I've never been much of a painter to begin with, but this was a very fun and organic project. Our final camp project was fantastic and successful, and I am incredibly proud of the kids who helped make my summer camp a success.

I'll have to start being a bit more creative as I go into my remaining 21 weeks of creativity now that camp is over, but I'm determined to finish this project.

For now: take a look at the camp mural! You can see it in person down the street from Franklin Pierce High School on 112th street in Midland, Washington. Also be sure to search for #pyartcamp on Instagram and Twitter for some close-up shots of the mural and process pictures!

This post is twenty-ninth in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week 28

I think the fact that I am running an arts camp automatically qualifies as something creative each week in July. And for this week's installment in my creativity challenge, it is in fact a task from camp: apart from the fact that I schedule and plan every activity with my associate Allie (although she gets the majority of the teaching credit!), I also participate in some of our activities.

So for week 28, I put together a special presentation on the topic of Tacoma's local art and an overview of art history in general. This was a precursor to a scavenger hunt the kids did on Thursday, which I also planned and organized with Allie. Finally, I also brought in my friend Becky to teach the kids how to do henna tattoos. While everyone practiced their body art, I decided to doodle a bit on myself.

The tally this week, then, is: a lesson on art history, planning an arts scavenger hunt, and staining my skin with pop culture references. I'd say it was a success in addition to creative!

Enjoy my henna tattoo, and be sure to check out my arts camp! We are wrapping up this week, but big things are happening (which I will of course address in next week's creativity post).

This picture may show off my Harry Potter silhouette and Deathly Hallows symbol, but on the back of my hand I also drew a David Bowie Aladdin Sane lightning bolt.

This post is twenty-seventh in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week 27

This weekend, my brother, my best friend and I drove down to Seaside, Oregon for a day trip. It's a bit of a drive for a single day, especially since we can enjoy beaches and sunshine right here in the Puget Sound. However, it's always fun to drive along the Oregon coast on US Hwy 101, plus once you're down to Seaside you may as well drive down to Tillamook and have some cheese at the best cheese factory in the world.

Along the way, I started taking pictures with my iPhone of things that I felt represented America and Americana. I started posting them on Instagram, always using the same filter and same caption: "This is America." It turned into a mini photo series, capturing my idea of America.

This week for 50 weeks of creativity, I want to share that series. This is America.

In addition to this photo project, I am still quite busy with camp! The kids are absolutely fantastic, and I would like to encourage everyone to check out the creativity happening right here in Beautiful Parkland. We are on Facebook, Twitter, and we have a website.

This post is twenty-seventh in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Catching Up

Hiatus is over, and it is time to catch up...with weeks 15 through 26. Yikes, 11 weeks! Two and a half months' worth of creativity that needs catching up. Rather than recap 11 weeks that I actually can't remember super well at this point, I figured this could be a summary post featuring snippets of what I have been up to.

Most of my creative work recently has been related to my PY // Art from Parkland's Youth project. The show successfully took place at Pacific Lutheran University as planned, and was followed up with a second show at Trinity Lutheran Church. Then the project grew: a fellow PLU alumna and I applied for a Sparks Grant from the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, and we were finalists in the application process. We didn't get the grant, but we also didn't need it: community support has been very wonderful, and as a result we have been able to organize a four-weeks arts camp for local teenagers. The camp has already finished one week, and is now onto its second week this Monday. Oh, I've also graduated with my MA.

Life has been busy, which is why this blog has fallen on the wayside. It's difficult to keep a personal journey blog running when focusing on other aspects of life! But here I am, back to complete this journey before closing the blog down. Thanks for your patience.

I have been updating and organizing my online portfolio, via Behance.

I have been maintaining the website for PY // Art from Parkland's Youth, as well as running the Facebook page and taking pictures of exhibitions and camp!

Of course, I graduated, which I posted all over my Instagram feed (along with other fun stuff).

Finally, I've been baking. I had a craving for cupcakes the other day, so I came up with some delicious orangecicle cupcakes. I'll post the recipe later this week, but for now: a picture of my handiwork.

Once again, sorry for the long hiatus. I'm back, and we'll finish out the remaining 24 weeks of creativity on time. Promise.

Delayed Updates

Okay, okay, my apologies. For the past three weeks, I have kept thinking and reminding myself that I needed to update, but I simply didn't feel like it. I had things to share: I was certainly creating items for the 50 weeks challenge as I worked on my final project for my master's degree. I just did not want to take the time or energy to post. Even this update is simply for the purpose of acknowledging my lack of motivation, and to promise that I will come back to it soon.

I'm off to Savannah this weekend for my graduation. It's been busy recently, as I finished my projects and put on my art exhibition. I'm planning a camp now and applying for jobs. It's difficult to find the motivation to continue updating a mostly-ignored blog. But I gave myself a goal, something to work towards each week. And so, once this brief hiatus is over, I promise to catch up on that goal and come back to regular updates.

After the 50 Weeks challenge has been completed, I believe I will retire this blog. It's time to open a new chapter of life: this blog was started in 2009, in preparation for my first semester in London during my undergrad. It has continued through other adventures, including graduate school across the country and my recent internship once again in London. However, as I graduate this Saturday with my MA, I will begin looking for work. My life will become more routine and less adventurous, and a personal blog will lose what appeal it has currently. So the final adventure on Sarah's Cross is to complete the 50 Weeks of Creativity, and then we will close this chapter.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week 14

It's been a very busy week, as I have been adjusting to being home (finally), catching up on homework, and finalizing everything for my art exhibition this coming weekend. I don't have much to update on, but I do have a video for the exhibition to share for this week's creativity contribution.

During my junior year of undergrad, I produced my own student television station. My brother helped me put it all together, and so earlier this week we took some old footage, edited it, and created a promotional video for my fundraising portion of my final project.

This post is fourteenth in a series of 50 weekly posts, as part of my 50 Weeks of Creativity Challenge for 2013. To see every post and creation from the series, click here.