the life of brenna

today, i took my little sister into Conway to go buy some art supplies…and other than spending way too much money on them…it made me extremely happy!

About a month ago I went to a retreat at my church camp that focused on the different aspects of worship..and I got to be in a group for visual arts. There were only four of us in the group, so we pretty much got to do whatever we wanted to do. I ended up doing several paintings that were displayed during the final service that the campers put together. Well, I had several people come ask me if they could buy the paintings that I did…which made me really happy. I ended up giving one away to my best friend, Amy…and I sold two to Ms. Robin, one of the camp counselors. She said that she loved my art work..and actually she wanted to buy all of the paintings I did, but I had already promised some of them to other people. Well, she asked me if I would like to paint some paintings for her daughter’s room that they are re-doing…and she said that she would pay be really well for them! So of course I jumped on it! Well, since Jr. Camp is only a couple of weeks away, and I’ll be moving really soon, I figured I had better get a start on the paintings for her. I finally got in contact with her and her daughter and they want at least 5 paintings, including 1 that is really big to hang at the head of her bed. So far I have finished 2 of the 5 paintings. Lesley, the girl I’m doing the paintings for, gave me a list of 5 of her favorite quotes that she wants me to use in the paintings…which is great, because I love using words in my art! The first two that I’ve finished are: “Love is giving someone the power to break your heart, but trusting them not to.”; and “Anyone who says sunshine is happiness has never danced in the rain.” I have to say that I’m really happy with how they both turned out. The other quotes that I’m painting for her are: “Either you define the moment or the moment defines you.”, “and so the lion fell in love with the lamb”…which is apparently from the book Twilight..which I really want to read….and “The best things in life are unseen, thats why we close our eyes when we kiss, cry, and dream.”..which is the one she wants on the really big canvas above her bed. It’s been quite a while since someone asked me to paint anything for them…especially for money. Now the hard thing will be trying to come up with a price to ask for them..I’m so bad about asking someone to pay a certain price for a painting…I don’t want to ask for too much..but at the same time, I don’t want to ask for too little either. I feel that if I ask for too much, then it will make me seem cocky about my art, or that my art isn’t really worth what I asked for. And if I ask for too little, then I cheapen my art and make it seem like what I do isn’t worth anything. I really need to come up with a good set of guidelines for selling my paintings, especially since i know of two other people that want me to paint stuff for them…one is a girl wanting paintings for her new dorm room in the fall, and the other is one of my best friends from high school wanting me to paint her some paintings for her new house. If anyone that even reads this has ever sold there artwork and wants to make suggestions on how much to charge for acrylic on canvas paintings of all different sizes…please feel free to do so…because I’m at a loss. Other than that, it feels good to have someone commission art from me…I guess that kind of reinforces the fact that I really am an artist.

on a completely different note…I only have 9 more days that I have to work before my last day. I gave my notice at my work over a week ago…and it’s really dragging by…and getting even worse than it was before. it will be good to take a month or so and not work. Two weeks at Camp Formosa, then a week or so out in Tennessee with my best friend, Emily, will be really nice. Then I’ll come back and find another job in Conway somewhere, preferably not at a daycare this time, though. I think I’ve had my share of demon-children to last me a while…not saying that all of the kids at my work are that bad…but a few sure can be monsters at times…and it seems like I’m the one that always gets stuck with them it seems.

Now off to get some packing done, because I move to Conway in less than two weeks…and barely anything in this house has been packed yet!