Bears and FISH

 It has been a while since I have had the time to blog, I've been so busy with school and work.. I did not get much of a summer. Every night though I still set a little bit of time away to work on my bears and they are coming along .. very very slowly. A couple weeks ago my family and I went away for a weekend to the beach, it ended up raining the entire time (except the day we were leaving.. of course) so we went to an aquarium and saw some pretty amazing fish and sea creatures. Here's some pictures of the bear I'm working on and all the animals I met. Have a great weekend!
 Hugs! - Heidi

Lion fish.. pretty but deadly.

Jellies

Eel

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright

 While I was walking through the craftstore yesterday I picked up another piece of wood to decorate, and what do you know here I am crafting again. I decided this time to use an engraving tool which burns into the wood; the fire and the embers reminded me of a poem by William Blake I once had to memorize for AP Lit. It goes,

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

My "Tyger" !

The burning stage

The Sketch

One Big Bruin

 Sitting patiently in my fabric box waiting to be finished since before school was out has been the second largest bear I've ever made. I've been so busy on graduating, getting ready for college and enjoying being with my family that I almost forgot about him. Recently I had an interview for a job at a roofing company (I applied to be a secretary) and surprisingly enough I found out I got my first job!I plan on saving every penny I earn towards my college. Although it is only a part time job I am also starting my college this summer and as I work on my math placement tests to figure out my fall schedule it is looking like all my AP credits are taking away from my extracurricular which means I can't take any art classes if I wish to stay on my pre-veterinary biomedical course. I am really bummed, just this past year I discovered that I have this crazy love and passion for art and now my schedule is looking like I won't have any time to create. Ever since pre school my unwavering dream has been to become a veterinarian and I couldn't have picked a harder goal. It is more difficult to get into vet school than it is to get into medical school. I realize that these next four years are the most important time of my life and I cannot have any sort of distraction.. but does that include even my art? Even if I cannot take art classes at my college I am thinking that maybe I can go during my thanksgiving and winter breaks to take some courses at some local art schools. Unfortunately this means that I won't be doing much blogging in the days to come but we will see what happens. One thing I know for sure is that I am going do my best to finish this big bear by the end of the summer and if all goes well hopefully do a big give away too!
  Hugs as always- Heidi

The Tale of a Rat

  Yesterday I was driving with my little niece to the mall when we saw this tiny little creature sprint out across the road just as a van was coming. The driver of the van slammed on their breaks but the little animal kept going and it hit the wheel sending it flying. My niece and I jumped out of our car and rushed to see if the little animal was okay; we were surprised to find that it was a baby rat! Miraculously the poor thing was not hurt at all just a bit stunned so I took him home to make sure he wouldn't be hit by another van or eaten by a cat. Originally I figured it must be a mouse since it is so small, but after doing some research I think that perhaps it might be a baby endangered Florida Key Largo wood rat. Since we are leaving for the beach tomorrow I am not quite sure what to do with the little guy, he doesn't seem to be eating or drinking and I am really worried about him. I think today I will try and call some wildlife conservations here in Florida and see if they might be able to rehabilitate this cute little wood rat.
 Hugs! - Heidi

Flora and Fauna

Hi everyone! 
 It has been an exciting couple of days for me; I finally had my college orientation and I began to sign up for classes. I was surprised to learn that I had enough credits from AP classes to skip my first year of college and be considered a sophomore! Although this is great news I still feel so overwhelmed; it is really daunting to think that I have 12 more years of college ahead of me in order to become a veterinarian surgeon. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end. In other news I haven't had any time to work on art since the family is coming for my graduation so I have been busy cleaning and admiring the wild life in my back yard! I felt really inspired by all the beautiful blogs I've seen lately with flowers blooming that I decided to look around and see what things I could find! Around this time of year all the baby lizards are hatching, tadpoles are turning into little tree frogs, and baby doves are testing their courage and their wings. Hope you enjoy!
 Hugs- Heidi

Our little pineapple. If you buy one from the grocery store

there's a way you can save the plant by cutting off the top. 

 My family did this with all the pineapples

we ate and now we have a farm.

A tiny anole that just hatched

A camouflaged baby dove in its nest

Do you see the bee?

My kitty autumn fell asleep in this orange box,

her new nickname is "cutie"  :)

Goodbye Fox

  Only three more days of school left, and twelve more days until I graduate. Yesterday the mail brought some great news, I have received a bright futures scholarship to pay for my tuition as well as a scholarship from a church I play my flute at which will cover the expenses of my books. I am very excited to start this new part of my life on the right foot but at the same time very sad to see all my friends leave; especially my best friend who I have known since kindergarten. My best friend Emily and I have always been lucky and gone to the same schools, been in the same classes, and done every sport and played our flutes together, but she decided on Brigham Young University for her college and I picked the University of Central Florida. Since she is moving so far away I wanted to make her something nice to remember our good times, but I just couldn't decide what to make. While I was out shopping around I found this beautiful piece of wood that I thought would make a wonderful canvas to paint on! Even though I feel much more comfortable working with 3D things I decided it was time to once again cringe and take out the brushes. Hope you enjoy!       
                   Hugs! - Heidi

After I took these pictures I could see that I needed to

fix the shading in some areas.

The before shot! Just a regular old piece of wood.

Finish line

  Hello everyone! I hope all is well. I have been so busy the past few weeks with exams and finishing up all my art work for AP art studio! I also was under the weather last week so I'm still trying to play catch up on top of all that studying. Yesterday I was at school from 7am to 10 pm working on essays, cropping photos and uploading information, it was almost a bitter sweet feeling to finally be done. Most of this work you have already seen but I think it is nice to see it all photographed professionally. Hope you enjoy !
 Hugs~ Heidi

The hawk

My teacher suggested I spray paint the hawk silver

before painting it with acrylics. This turned out to be

a great idea I think. The feathers shine through in the sunlight.

I made these guys out of found chocolate wrappers. I hadn't planned

on putting them in my portfolio at all, but they photographed so nicely.

Bird Brain

 Two of my favorite things to do are daydream and doodle. Every homework, or spare sheet of paper in my back pack seems to have a little drawing on it, I don't know why I always feel the urge to sketch whatever I see but I am thankful for it because it makes life much more interesting. Recently I have been drawing a lot of hawks, eagles and falcons. When I do archery in the woods near my house (I only shoot at a milk carton, not animals!) I always see these wonderful creatures swooping down into the lake trying to catch fish, it is a spectacular sight. After a short period of some unsucessful sculpts I've put my hand and doodles to the test. Here is the work in progress! Enjoy!
        Hugs - Heidi

Doesn't look much like a bird yet!

A couple feathers and a smile

It takes so long making each individual feather

 

Almost done! After I put on the finishing touches

its into the kiln for this feathered friend! I wonder

which colors I should paint him?

Clowning Around

   Tomorrow is a big day for this little bear. I have spent hours working on the costume I want her to wear to the art show. I am super excited to have my first fuzzy bear on display and I want her to look her best! I didn't expect the costume to turn out this way at all, I am actually not very fond of clowns.. but I think it suits her well. Hope you enjoy!
 Hugs! - Heidi

Bears on the beach

  At last spring break is here!!! I have been very busy working on my new bear but I still saved some time to kick back and relax by the ocean. The last week of school was exceptionally difficult for me, the life sized wolf sculpture I was working on came crashing to the ground (I'm not sure if it was because i built it unstable or someone accidently knocked into it.. I wasn't in the room at the time) the last day of school I began rebuilding my sculpture all over again. And then to complicate things even more my flute broke a week before states. I'm grateful for the rest, I have been able to get things sorted out now. Today I took some quick pictures of my new bear Coco, theres still some things I need to finish on her though like a tail, tushtag, and I want to decorate her differently for the AP art show in April (for some reason I don't think pipecleaner bunny ears would impress the judges ha ha ).  Hope you enjoy the bear and the beach pictures!
       Happy spring! -Heidi

I named her after the beach 

I went to this week "Coco Beach"

                            My little phone camera did not seem to like

                                       the pink and purple colors.

Coco Beach

The backyard