They Say It’s Your Birthday: From the Self Embarrassment File

Birth, April 21st, 1985

So, it feels self-indulgent to waste this time and go through my old photos and try to identify at least one for each year of my life. But I did it anyway. I told Blake I was working on this post, and I didn’t know why I was doing it, but that it felt a bit narcissistic. He told me it was okay to be a bit narcissistic because I’m an artist. Maybe it’s not “okay,” but it is, perhaps, “inevitable.” As an artist, I guess it’s a good idea to take a look at the lens every now and again. Dust it off. Check for scratches.

Perhaps, I should say that I am being more self analytical, investigative and just curious about the question of “how have I changed on the outside?” The inside is another matter entirely. Yet, I do feel that my core is the same from as early as I can remember. My painting/drawing professor Sandy said that we make art about the same core things our whole lives, even if the way we represent them changes. Since making art is as much or more a part of myself as any other daily activity, I feel the same holds true for my overall character. But I can hope and try to get better with age.

Good things about getting older: perspective, more even keel, happier, snarkier and husband.

Bad things about getting older: miss friends, varicose veins, move too much, summers will never be the same.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pov2sK_C3sY&w=420&h=315]

Soundtrack for this post.

A lot of these photographs are funny to me now. Most of the self portrait shots are from times when I was feeling down for one reason or another. I seem to enjoy glaring a lot. And when I’m not glaring, I’m squinting to smile. I developed my glare pretty early on, as far as glares go. My first word was something akin to “no,” after all.

Some of them were taken for school projects/paintings/drawings. I still have some gaps to fill in in this timeline. Dates are estimated, and most of the images are pulled from my Flickr stream, which I started in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina to share photos of our damaged home/neighborhood/city/hearts with friends and family elsewhere.

Middle school and early high school seem to be largely missing from this timeline. As is most of elementary school. I’d have to go through old photo albums at my mom’s home in Georgia and scan a lot of things to fill in those gaps. I’m not very good at remembering how old I am in most images of little me–or elementary or middle or high school me, for that matter. At least my birth year conveniently predicted my grade level for a while, which made things a bit easier to remember (i.e. in 1993, I started 3rd grade; in 1996, I started 6th grade.)

My actual birthday is on Sunday, April 21st. Right smack in the middle of Earth Day and Hitler’s birthday. I’ll be 28. On Friday, we’re helping BGSU students screen print bandanas for a local elementary school’s field day. Then we’re headed up to Detroit for a nice meal and to stay in a beautiful art deco hotel that Blake got a room in for almost nothing. We’re going to explore museums/galleries while we’re there and on the way home.

The Early Years: 0-3

 

 

I used to make sculptures in the back yard out of bricks and sticks.

The Early Years: 3-5ish

6 Years

7-9 (?) Years

10-11 Years

I had to pee really badly when they took this photo. Didn’t realize until afterwards how much I show my feelings on my face!

12-13 Years

14-15 Years

15-17 (?) Years

My first car.

Senior Prom.

18 Years

Oh, college dorm room bathroom. And long hair. Never again, long hair!

And then this happened…

When I caught myself on fire freshman year of college. Here, and elsewhere…

19 Years

20 Years

21 Years

22 Years

23 Years

24 Years

25 Years

26 Years

27 Years

28 Years

In Other News…

I’ve been busy working on my many mini jobs: working on a website for a photographer, packaging and dropping work off to sell at art-a-site! gallery in downtown Bowling Green, working on getting a Chandler and Price tabletop press up and running at Les Cheneaux Design (pics coming soon,) making a new falcon linoleum block print (the Bowling Green State University mascot animal,) and crafting/finding/photographing a plethora of new goodies for our recently revived Etsy shop. Here’s a few samples:

See, No Evil Here Woodcut Print

Maps Travel Journal

Ankylosaurus Lithograph with Watercolor

Oh! And I’m starting a new crochet wall hanging project I was commissioned to do. Pics of that coming soon, too!