Michael Flaherty, President of Walden Media came to BYU today! He earned the standing ovation that he got for his presentation "On a Story and a Prayer".

He talked about the powerful ability great art, songs, literature, films, have in helping us learn the essential things - compassion, service, faith, patience, optimism. He also acknowledged the flip side that these arts may intensify our darker natures as well.

But "the ultimate power of a good story is something that helps us discover what God meant for us to be."

I was impressed by Mr. Flaherty's friendly, approachable nature, but even more impressed at how courageous he has been in pursuing clean, uplifting media and how tastefully he has woven his faith into his profession.

I feel inspired.

Oh. He also mentioned the Kelly Loosli was the Jimmer Fredette of Animation. Just mentioning "Jimmer" won him (at least 50 :) points.

 Speaking of stories, Murphy and I are thinking of beat-boarding our story for the Gallery-reception-party-gig in September! Maybe too much work?

Okay - but seriously. He's cute.

And he fixes computers. SOLD.

Feeling Groovy!

So there's this guy...

He asked me to marry him.

:)

I said, "yes."

It's a good story.

A Thought of You

Yay for Ryan! We already knew he was the coolest, but he just proved it again!

If you get a chance, go see his exhibit, "Conte Animated" in Gallery 303 of the Harris Fine Arts Center at BYU. It will be up until January 29.

Here's a sampler from opening night. 1 - Ryan, 2 - Masters Adams and Olsen, 3, 4 - Gesture Drawings, 5-7 - several comments that were left in response to the video on youtube. I took the ones I liked best.

8 - Last but not least: Cheryl Johnson! She's too cute!

Really, though. It's much better in person than through my phone-camera.

Sisters

Sometimes in middle of everyday bustle, we even had opportunities to do fun artsy-fartsy things.

Warm and on the Cutting Edge of Fashion. Win-win. :)

Pinyata! Gangsta, christmas penguin pinata.

Waiting to get into Sleeping Beauty the Ballet. (WOW)

The Plan of Salvation! So brilliantly simple that it can even fit in a simple chalk-drawn diagram in front of our church building!

If Elmo were Emo...

While we were in SLC, we went to Urban Outfitters and found out that my camera has a timer. And that Urban Outfitters has a lot of cool merchandise.

Partly because we all watched Alphabet-shows when we were younger and thus have a natural inclination to play with big letters, partly because Kristin is Typographoholic and partly just because the letters were pretty - we played composition games with them for approximately an hour and half before heading home. hehe

We're going to pitch to Sesame Street and see if they can't make the show a little edgier and more accessible to their young adult audiences.

This program was made possible by Viewers Like You. Thank you.

Sketchventure-sode in SLC!

Saturday was Sketch adventure day in Salt Lake!

I went with these ^ two wonderful people to paint/sketch/photograph the cool houses in Northern SLC. Even though we didn't find the neighborhood we were looking for, we did find plenty of cool houses.

Ivy may be destructive to your house, but it gives the house such a rustic, lived-in look. I guess it's kind of like a house's sun tan. Bad for it, but so irresistibly pretty....

Look! They match! :)

^ This house was slightly to the right of the cool driveway below.

Sunlit trees are sooooo beautiful.

I can't even say how great it was to paint outside. I'm taking a plein aire class when I get back.

Sketchventure-sode in Provo

At about 9:00p, Kristin asked me if I was doing anything. I guessed I didn't since I was done with Drew's graduation and we went on a little sketch adventure in Barnes & Noble and Gelato's.

SO fun.

Friends that sketch together stay together.

Jake and Anthony told me about these watercolor brush-pens and I can understand why they're so enthralled by them. I've got Kristin hooked on them now too. :P

PS. Jon J Muth and Brittney Lee ARE AWESOME.

Groupwise

In an effort to learn Flash, I accepted an offer from Film Student Asia Stryker to do this animation for the Novell Groupwise competition. It was fun and we might actually have a fighting chance at this thing! There are two different logo-endings. I like the first one better. It flows a little better, I think.
SO!...for your perusing pleasure:

UPDATE [5/22/09] - We got Fourth Place in the Competition. But that's only because there was some pretty rampant Nepotism going on. It's causing a mini-scandal in the Film Program right now. Just know, though - We WOULD HAVE gotten third. :P

ME-yazaki

Sis and I watched "My Neighbor Totoro" last night. That film is phenomenal. And it was born the same year I was! If I could relive my childhood, I would definitely do it as a Miyazaki character.