Just a few thought

I'm not generally one for getting all emo or airing out my frustrations online, but sometimes I get tired of having to keep it to myself--to sit here realizing no one cares about how they've made me feel. That no matter how hard I try to swallow my wants and needs, the second I mention one I'm labeled "selfish" and told I think it's "all about me". After I've given all I can, I'm never looked at with an eye that judges my workload or a heart sincere in considering my thoughts and concerns. It's about what they want, instead. How my inability to do what they want right now is a terrible inconvenience to them.

I got to thinking about a quote from Power of Myth, a book of an interview with Joseph Campbell I read this summer. The book discusses the myths in our lives and what's thought of as important to humans by virtue of the myths we create. At one point Campbell starts on the idea of dragons:

"... There are people like that, and we call them creeps. There's no life from them, no giving. They just glue themselves to you and hang around and try to suck out of you their life."

What happens when you realize that those dragons are the people you love the most? The ones you'd do anything for? What do you do when you need them to take a moment--not one in a disaster or when you're at your most helpless physically, but when you just need to know someone sees you as important enough to take a minute. Just a minute. To look, to see, to talk. To experience something that's important to me. Or to support me in a decision. To nod and say "I understand" rather than "Why did you do that?" or "Couldn't you just..." with some version of events that works better towards their ends.

I don't know why I feel so compelled right now to share this, except I imagine I'm not the only one. Maybe someone out there needs to know they aren't alone in fighting the dragons.

Art History Podcast

My cousin put my life perfectly the other day. He said "it's all about your perspective. My glass is half full... yours is overflowing and you need two more glasses to catch it." I'm sorry to say he wasn't talking about my superb sense of optimism, though I'm working on that. I like being busy. So I do things like podcasts.

Yes, podcasts. I'm part of a group of students running an art history podcast on UVU campus. We've got an amazing group--several art history enthusiasts like me, as well as one spectacular audio man. Take a minute to check it out at http://artsandfacts.blogspot.com/.

We'll soon be up and running on iTunes U as well, which will make it easier for you to get our podcast as it comes out!

Family Portraits

With a family that is constantly on the go, working on one project or another, I would have to wait forever to get them to sit long enough for me to get a picture (and that's if I could convince them to be in a picture in the first place). So I took it upon myself to do something a little... different.

 

Ava Daphne and Christopher Issac Arling

 

Cory Allen Arling

 

Megan Kristina Arling

 

Melanie Jayne Teemant

  

Mike Teemant

 

Self Portrait

If you like this project, please go to my facebook page and hit "like".