Self-Portrait

Spring Break, Backs, and Wax Paintings

Last week was my spring break. I started my vacation by hurting my back and having to lay in bed all day Sunday and taking it easy for the rest of the days. I was having cramps and stiffness in my lower back, legs, and shoulders. I spent the week working on my South American film presentation for World Lit, studying for my art history test, reading books from the WSU library, watching movies, and watching Lost Season 5 on dvd. On the days when I felt better, Mom and I went shopping.

This week, I was back at school. For Color Theory, I had to bring my digital camera to take photos of myself using blue/orange and yellow/purple lights. I also had to buy some printmaking paper to paint the portraits on. For Art History, we didn't have class on Tuesday and learned more about the Baroque period. For World Lit, I had to write my last journal on The English Patient and start writing my two page essay. For Painting I, I had to buy some masonite panels and I painted them using hot wax, melted in a skillet.

The English Patient Pages 207-302

In pages 207 through 302 of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, the English patient confirms that he is Almasy. Almasy reveals he met Katherine two week after she married Geoffrey, falling in love with her while she read Herodotus with him , and began their affair a year later. He also tells us Madox shot himself while in a church service. When Almasy left the cave to go for help, he was arrested for being a spy in El Taj.

Caravaggio reveals to Almasy that he and Geoffrey worked for British Intelligence and the agency was planning on assassinating him. Kip reveals how fearless he is when it comes to disarming bombs, feeling like he is defending himself like an "animal." When Kip hears about the nuclear bombs hitting Japan, he takes a rifle and threatens to kill Almasy, blaming the British. Kip later leaves the villa and Hana behind, sparing Almasy's life. Fourteen years later, Kip is a married doctor with two children back in India, who wonders where Hana is and if she is happy.

They talk a lot about words and reading. Almasy feels he "has been governed by words" and insists to Caravaggio that "words have power." Almasy tells Caravaggio, the only way he could get Hana "to communicate was to ask her to read to me," breaking down her walls. When Caravaggio interrogates Almasy, he says "Am I just a book? Something to be read?"

The desert is a powerful and important place for Almasy, where he was burned, fell in love, and fought for survival. Almasy realizes, "A man shall be a rivers of water in a dry place," believe in man's effect on nature. Almasy believes the desert is the "theatre of war," "has been raped by war, shelled as if it were just sand, " and it "spoiled Madox."

Encaustic (Hot Wax) Paintings

Interior

Ben Lomond

Apple Collage

March and Moles

Ryan is going to be working in Games at Lagoon this summer, while I am working as a Handstamper again. I also am enjoying my calling in the nursery. All the kids are really cute and it's fun to play games and sing with them.

On March 11th, I got some moles taken off my back and their biopsy came back fine.

On March 20th, my parents bought a White 1999 Dodge Durango.

Apple Collages, Aztecs, and Interiors

For Art History, we learned about the Incas, the Baroque, and the Aztecs. For Color Theory, we made a collage of red apple using clippings from magazines on bristol board. For Painting I, we finished our interior painting of the art building. For World Literature, I read to page 206 of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.

The English Patient Pages 107-203

In pages 107 through 203 of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, the backgrounds of Kip and the English patient are revealed. Hana has started a romantic relationship with Kip, while still having feelings for the patient and Caravaggio. The English patient tells us of his time in South Cairo between 1930 and the present, where he was a map maker and how he fell in love with a married woman named Katherine Clifton. After their breakup, Katherine's husband tries to kill them all in a plane crash, but the patient drags Katherine out alive. She dies wounded, in a nearby cave, where he returns three years later. Caravaggio reveals the patient might be a spy from Hungary, instead of English, based on his time in Cairo. Kip reveals his past with destructing bombs and how he got recruited for his job. Kip also reveals his brother was a protester of anything dealing with the English and is in jail.

Caravaggio is the voice of reason in this novel. He talks to the other characters about war and society and doesn't sugar coat the history or the present. Although none of the characters are wealthy, they live in "like the filthy rich in their filthy villas" during a war, so they're pretty well off, in a difficult time, even though their villa is rigged with bombs and falling apart. He finds a gramophone and plays music as a distraction to the chaos they feel outside of their villa. Caravaggio is clearly frustrated with the events of the war, asking "What are we doing in Africa, in Italy?" He believes Kip, Hana, and himself are "free," with no obligations other than to live their own lives the way the choose. He wants to protect Hana and get her out of the country by killing the patient.

Paper Still Lifes, New Cars, and Sleep Tests

We got Mom's car back last Saturday. It still had the same grinding noise. Dad went tonight and traded it in on a used Ford Edge. It is a cinnamon colored one.

Mom had to go have her second sleep test last night at the hospital with a cpap this time. She said she slept better with it. Dad went and picked her up at 6 this morning.

I didn't have art history this week. My professor cancelled class on Tuesday and didn't show up for class on Thursday. For Color Theory, we painted two more paper still lifes. For Painting I, we started our interior painting of the art building. I am painting the third floor windows by the patio. For World Literature, I read the first 106 pages of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.

The English Patient: Pages 1-106

In pages 1 through 106 of The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, we are introduced to four unique characters who are all living at this time at the Villa San Girolamo in Italy during World War II. Hana is a twenty year old reclusive nurse who likes to spend time reading and taking care of the English patient. Hana seems to be in love with all of her houseguests.

David Caravaggio is a thief who got his thumbs cut off, trying to steal a camera which held his photography, and was a friend of Hana's father. The English patient, who remains nameless at this time, whose plane went down in the African desert. He was rescued by members of the Bedouin tribe who used him to find buried weapons. We know little about him, besides the fact he is burned all over his body and wears a hearing aid. Kip, a Sikh, apparently can diffuse bombs.

Hana, so far, is the most interesting to me. The narrator tells us Hana loves the outdoors, because she wants the air to smell of "nothing human," being trapped in a world of blood and death. Hana reminds me of Harriet in Old Gringo. She won't look in the mirror like Harriet and believes a book "is a mirror walking down a road." She constantly is reading, because she "fell upon books as the only door out of her cell," so obviously she doesn't enjoy the sadness of her job. She hasn't made connections, calling every patient she treats, "Buddy," except for the people left in the villa. She feels "safe" in the villa, "half adult and half child," almost like she is playing house. These three men seem to have broken her shell, because deep down she wants attention and love.

Paper Still Lifes