AnnPars

Hi there! I just realized that the journal that's been sitting on my front page is over a year old. Many exciting stuffs and thingies have happened since then! This last year I've:

• Graduated Kendall College with a degree in Illustration!
• Started grad school at Hartford Art School
• Gotten married (I'll be Alyssa Menold as soon as the paperwork all goes through)
• Turned around and went straight back to Kendall to teach as an adjunct

I only have a couple weeks left of school! I'm super excited! Maybe the crazy hectic pace of my life will ease up for a bit, at least for a couple weeks--I haven't had almost any time for deviantart, which makes me a little sad since I follow some awesome people and I know I've been missing out on a lot that they've done this past year.

In other news, I've been awarded the Illustration excellence award and named Valedictorian! I was more excited about this before I found out I had to give a speech. I've never actually been to a graduation, so I'm not sure what graduation speeches are made of . . . I'm hoping youtube will have some examples I cobble together into a nice, generic short speech that won't make me look too silly

Ok, back into the homework pile for me! If I emerge in one piece, I should have lots of new art by the end of the month.

My painting Jackie and the beanstalk fav.me/d4wle2k got a Daily Deviation ! So happy! Thank you everyone for all your wonderful comments!

Semester is over! Stuff is happening! Art is being made! Yay! Also, I finally got around to tackling dreamweaver, and I built myself a website over here www.alyssaannart.com/ ! Check it out if you have a moment . I post commissioned portrait stuff over there that I don't have on deviantArt. I also just set up a facebook page here www.facebook.com/AlyssaAnnIllu… where I'll have work in progress photos and all that fun stuff.

As soon as I get a sunny day, I'll be heading up the coast of lake Michigan to take pictures of lighthouses and scope out good painting spots. I'm really interested in doing more landscape stuff, so hopefully I'll be posting some of that this summer in between summer classes .

I got into the society of illustrators! Yay! My painting (www.soicompetitions.org/?secti…) is going to New York!

Getting in was a bit of a surprise. On Monday morning I woke up to find an email listing the accepted entries. Mine wasn't one of them, so I had myself a little sniffle, bought myself some consolation coffee (with extra chocolate), and went on with my day. Later that night I got a facebook message congratulating me on getting in. I double checked the accepted entries list, and surprise! My painting 'Surprise!' had gotten in . I'll admit it's not my favorite of the paintings I entered, but at this point I'm too high on happiness to care.

Also, I'm turning 21 in a few days! My drinking will soon be legal !