For as Long as I Can Remember...I've Been Drawing

I have been drawing since I was about two, starting by tracing my hand with the help of my mother. We were always drawing together, my mother and I, with me attempting her star and heart doodles as well as the bubble letters in which she wrote my name. And quite often I would ask her to draw Ariel, my favorite Disney Princess, for me so that I could color her in. Again, I was tried to draw my own princesses as I watched her draw Ariel. When I started pre-school at the age of three, one of my favorite activities, of course, was drawing. I must have drawn a lot of people, mostly princesses, because one day my teacher asked my mom if we drew a lot at home (which we did) and told her that for such a young age, she was amazed at the detail I put into my pictures.
I continued to draw in my free time, for my pure enjoyment of it and when we had free time in kindergarten, I drew there too. I can remember one girl asking me for drawing lessons because I drew so well! These drawings would not seem so amazing now, but back then, they were the best drawings we had ever seen. In second grade I started going to Art 101, located on Farmington, just a couple buildings north of Bates. It was there that my art skills began to flourish. It started with the simple face of a character of my choice. I chose Ariel (Big surprise there, right?). I can remember Scott, the owner, showing me for the first time of many how to get the basic shape of your drawing down first. I can remember watching and noting in my mind the way he sketched, just dark enough for it to be visible on paper and just light enough so when erased, no one would ever know the lines had been there to guide me. After that I went on to drawing in more detail, like where her eyes would be and the way her hair is shaped, afloat in the non-visible water. With some help from Scott, and probably a few others who worked at Art 101 at the time, I had drawn Ariel pretty well and it was time to add color. First I had to trace over every line with a black Sharpie and erase all pencil marks beneath. Scott then had me add marker, red for her hair, a peach color for skin and so on. And these markers were not just mere Crayola markers, I don’t actually know what kind they were, but they were much better than I had ever used at school or home. After that, I learned how to shade. Start dark with your color pencil and get lighter as you go until it fades into the color of the marker (you always use a color pencil slightly darker than the color of your marker). Once I had done that, I was finished and Scott had me sign it.
Since then my drawing skills have blossomed. As I grew older, I began to do much, much more on my own. About a year ago, Scott decided that I was ready to actually draw a person, a real person. Something I have waited for since the day I started. I chose a picture of Audrey Hepburn and started to work on it at art. It took me a while and it was done in pencil, when I finished it…Scott thought it was so good, he wanted to keep it to hang up in Art 101, with all the other amazing pictures done by students who have gone there. Of course I let him keep it, for having a picture hanging up there is another thing I had always worked towards.

A Prize Won for Good Intentions

Since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded to men and women from around the world for achievements in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The prize was founded by a man named Alfred Nobel, who, in his will left much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize. You see, he was the inventor of dynamite, which he used to blast rock in his family’s business of construction work. However, the market for dynamite grew quickly and his business was exporting the dynamite to other countries in Europe, America and Australia; he also founded factories and laboratories in 90 different places in more than 20 centuries. As he grew old he put an advertisement in the newspaper looking for a “lady of mature age…as secretary and supervisor of household.” A woman came, but soon decided to leave in order to marry a man back in Austria (where she came from). But they did keep in touch and she became a prominent figure in peace, which no doubt influenced him to write a peace prize into his will. He died in 1896 and when his will was opened he surprised everyone with the fact that his fortune was to be used as a prize in the few fields above.
Very recently, the Nobel Prizes have once again been awarded to a select few people for the year of 2009. The Peace Prize, which just may be the best know of them all was awarded to the United States own president, Barack Obama for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. When I heard this I was extremely surprised. I wondered to myself, why? Why has he won the Nobel Peace Prize? He hasn’t accomplished any big peace agreement or anything, what has he done to earn this? His extreme efforts are what they all say. Personally, I was under the impression that the prize is presented for an accomplishment, not a set of goals made that haven’t been reached. Even the President himself wondered what he had done to have such an honor thrust upon him. He didn’t have to accept it, of course, but he did accept it, he said “as a call to action.” Although I feel that to have won this extraordinary prize, action should have already taken place. When he actually accepts the award, on December 10th, 2009 he will also receive his cash prize of 1.4 million dollars, which he intends to give to charity. This fact alone makes me feel a little better about his winning the prize.
Again I wonder what he has accomplished to win this prize. He hasn’t. He has been given the reward for his efforts towards nuclear disarmament and American engagement. And the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari “saw the award as an endorsement of Mr. Obama’s goal of achieving Middle East peace." In each of the previous sentences, I think we need to look at a few key words, such as “efforts” and “goals”, especially “goals”. I do not believe the Nobel Peace Prize should be won for setting “goals.” Reaching these goals, yes, but not by setting them. And by setting these goals and achieving this prize, there is now quite a bit of pressure on President Obama to reach them. But the wars are not over yet and there isn’t peace in the Middle East, when someone actually achieves this they have definitely earned a Nobel Peace Prize. But for now, I guess we’ll just continue to fight.
For more information on Alfred Nobel or President Obama accepting the Nobel Peace Prize got to:
nobelprize.org
www.nytime.com

I've Been Thinking Lately...

Recently a friend told me a story of how her friend’s house burned down. It was started by something wrong with the cars in their garage and the fire spread through the house. I can’t possibly imagine what that would be like, they lost everything; their clothes, pictures, things you cannot replace and anything with meaning to it was lost in the fire. As hard as I try, I can’t possibly imagine what must have been like, losing everything.

So, lately I have been thinking what I would do if my house was to burn down. You are always told to get out right away, but I honestly don’t think I could do that without grabbing a few things (ok, maybe a lot of things) that are important to me. I think that if I were in that situation, I would grab my purse first and throw in my ipod and camera (my phone too, if it wasn’t already in there). I would then find the biggest bag in sight and start throwing stuff in there. Right now those items would probably be my Homecoming dress, all my art books, my journals, probably as many clothes as I could, and all my pictures. I would also probably grab a few of my favorite books since they are right on top of my desk. I also think that if I had time to, I would run downstairs to get my drawings off the stairway to the basement, because those things mean a lot to me! I put so much in to those, I can’t ever imagine losing them to fire. Then again, I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose anything in a fire.

I say this now, but I really don’t think I realize the intensity of having a fire in your home. And what if it happened while I was out and nobody was home? I would for sure lose everything then. And what if there was no time to grab all those items (which there probably wouldn’t be)? I would be so devastated. For me, the past week has given me time to realize how lucky I am to be living where I am, and have a roof over my head with a house containing everything I need. First it was the fire and then I went to the Invisible Children Night on the Field, which really woke me up. I couldn’t believe the things I saw during the video that night. I thought of the things I take for granted every day and compared my life to the lives of child soldiers in Uganda, realizing how inhuman some people can be and how thankful I am to be here today. Sometimes I think my life is hard, but it’s nothing compared to the lives of many.