As I sit here enjoying the slight brake from my homework (current class is very great), I wonder one thing? What the heck is going on today? A 15 year old boy shot to death on the border, our dependency on oil finally biting us hard, the mess in international waters and Israel, it really makes you want to cry.

I know I have had many problems in my life (financial, familial, personal), but when it all is compared to the world at large, you start to wonder is this it. Is that all we as a human race can do. An example of this would be the state of Arizona and their recent immigration law. Sure it will do what it’s intended to strengthen their immigration policies, but the side consequences make the poison more than the benefits. Do you honestly expect that natural born citizens won’t be pulled over because of the color of their skin? Do you think they will be able to show their driver’s license, speak English, and not be thought of as a lesser human? As a human race, freedom is one of our natural born rights. You shouldn’t have your freedom or dignity taken away when you need to call the police for help, your hurt and need medical treatment, or want to earn an education. I am not saying we shouldn’t enforce our current laws, but when you treat a human being as a lesser because they want a better life then something has gone tragically wrong.

Currently in congress, they are trying to pass the DREAM act.  The DREAM act is a bill that will allow the children of illegal immigrants both a path to citizenship and the ability to continue their educations. Of all the bills brought before the congress, this one would help thousands of people. You would think this bill would be easy to pass. It has been introduced time and again for over ten years since the 1990’s. The reason why it has not been passed, “Oh your just rewarding those damn illegal’s for being here and not following the law”. Clean up that last sentence for political speak. When you are a toddler or a young kid, your mom or dad need to support you to make a better life for you. They are desperate because their home country will not offer this to them, and our immigration policies will hold them further from supporting you. The average wait time to come in legally can vary from a few years up to 15 years if I recall correctly. Your parents do not know what else do to so in some cases, they will try to sneak into our country to support their families. As a kid you have no choice, you have to travel with your parents.

Those in congress know this happens, that the children of illegal immigrants are the victims of the system. Will they do anything, who can say? Time and again this bill is delayed or thrown out due to political ax grinding or pure racism. But this is legal Racism in the finest degree. “These immigrants are taking our jobs. Americans First. Why do we have to have these forms in English and Spanish? It should be English only”.

Sigh. I know this is a rant. This is something that has been eating at me for a while now. It saddens me that in my opinion we loosen and lax our current laws to create a version of legal slavery, forcing people to do the jobs we do not want to do.  When they try to improve or create a better life for their children, we want to knock them back down. The current incident at the border has made me want to cry. A 15 year old boy that was throwing rocks was shot down by a border guard. What the guard right to shoot. I cannot say. With the current situation in Mexico with the Drug Cartels taking over, people are getting scared. Was it an overreaction to kids throwing stones with an overabundance of force, who really knows for sure? All I can say is that this is one of the saddest states of both of our societies today.

My personal life has been very busy lately. My current school work involves a new Life Drawing class. As an artist, drawings have been my weakness. I am able to copy other artist work, but when I try to draw my own images, I have a real difficult time. It feels like there is static between my brain and the pencil. I am loving my classes. It may be a bigger expense later in life when the loans are due, but I am bettering myself to get a much better job. When my courses are all completed, will I move out from Amarillo Texas to gain a better job? Yes. I am determined to become a graphic designer. If I get onto a magazine, that would be great. If I get any type of graphic design job, I will be satisfied. I have found that many graphic designers have told themselves “I am going to work with Vogue Magazine and make lots of money”. That is an example I have seen many times online. It is great to have a high goal, but there are many graphic design fields.

My courses with the Arts Institute online have taught given me an edge I never thought possible. There are many classes and methods taught in a 5 and a half week period, and we will also learn how to apply for our chosen careers. I may drive myself crazy getting an assignment completed, but I see this as improving myself worth.

Coming Soon: This website will soon have sub domains with many more aspects of my school, personal and second life.

When I first got to see the movie, one of my first reactions as a photographer was “I so want to take pictures there”. My second reaction was wow. I have only experienced something like this once in my life when I was younger.

Both I and my mom were so excited to see Dragonheart and were surprised to see such a large crowd going half way into the parking lot (which was very big). When we were in line all I could hear people talking about was going to see Dragonheart at the time. The audience was pretty silent and cheering throughout the movie. When I realized it was a Wow moment was when the movie was over. You could tell everyone enjoyed it but the theater was quite. When we were exiting you could feel the vibe and experiences from everyone. My favorite moment was a little boy asking what happened to the dragon. I never thought I would have a group experience like that again. Then there was Avatar.

I won’t restate the story since you’ll see the synopsis on hundreds of websites, but it is an experience worth watching. The breath taking visuals have been stuck in my brain for the past month & I know it will also affect my art. My best friend has had the strongest urge to create artwork in that vein of the movie as well. If you look out on the internet, the Meme or ideas presented in the movie are spreading faster than you could expect.

Now as an artist who is also in school for graphic design, I have to ask how you expect this to influence art in the future. Will the ideas given hold into the public conscious or mind last? Will we ever get to virtually go to Pandora and take pictured (yes that’s the photographer in me)? Only time will tell but I can’t wait to see it.

During this break I have been working on an advertisement for a friends shoe store in Second Life called “If the Shoe fits”. Currently I am 75 percent complete with this project and in the process of composing the final Image.

I also now have a twitter account for my gallery Ishtars Kiss. Currently I am using this account to get messages from my school but will also soon use it to release information on my gallery and the various live music events I handle online.