It is way to late to be starting this...

Tonight I sat down with a few very dedicated friends to watch a movie I have been heavily anticipating for about a week now. Why are these friends "dedicated"? Because what Melissa has said about my movie selection is true; I love sad/twisted movies, and because what Amy Jo has said is also true: my movies are boring. Manderlay was tonight's anticipated movie, and it did not disappoint. Was it sad and boring? Some might say so. But what I love most about these sad, boring movies is that they have depth and that I can usually count on a really good discussion after the movie.

Only a few minutes prior to watching the movie I was talking with a friend about a speaker we had both heard this week. We usually don't see eye to eye and this discussion was no different. My estimation was that the speaker was boring, his, that he was intelligent and "right-on." ("Right-on" are my words not his) As he quickly unpacked theological issues from the speaker's talk, I realized how I was unequipped to judge the speech of its value. So too, is he, my friend, too hasty and perhaps under-equipped to judge filmmakers.

When the chapel speaker gave his speech I did try to listen and learn from a man of far more life experience and wisdom, but words don't capture my attention like images can. If Manderlay were a book and I had read it, it wouldn't have communicated half the message it did through watching it. It should come as no surprise that of the two of us, an artist and a scholar, that I am the one whose homework is paintings, drawings, sketches, animations, and other visual communications, and that his homework is researching and writing papers, one after another (just this week he turned in a 28-page paper!).

In a different conversation this year I was telling a friend how I had such strong passionate thoughts on a number of subjects but don't have the vocabulary to express them in words (thus I believe I am exempted from an traditional Evangelical calling...I couldn't communicate jack-shit). This person cleverly pointed me to the simple possibility that that is why I am an artist. I just hope that I can learn to communicate through my artwork. I had before then only thought of artwork as a pretty past time, something that for a practicalist like myself was a great sore. I still don't know how to communicate what I think, even though a lengthy 2 am post might say otherwise, but I hope I can grow to appreciate how others are communicating while I am still trying to figure my shit out.

List of things addressed, although all not overtly or necessarily in the Directors intention, in Manderlay:
1. Human Nature
2. Racism and Prejudice
3. Freedom, Democracy, Politics
4. Missions
5. well, there are certainly more or else I made the other list items too general...plus it's almost 3am.

Spring Break 2008- New Mexico/Arizona

Our first stop was in Roswell, NM.
We made foil costumes on the road before we got there.

This is the largest meteor crater on earth.

You can't actually go down to the bottom so there is a nice convenient backdrop in the museum to allow for awesome pictures like this one.
Us riding in the bus at the Grand Canyon.

Cathedral Rock just south of Sedona.

Joyeux Noël

Joyeux Noël. If you speak french your thinking, Merry Christmas? "Joyeux Noël" is a French movie I watched last night. It is about the Christmas Eve on the frontlines during WWI when German, French, and Scottish soldiers lay down their weapons and came out of their trenches for a spontaneous cease-fire. The encounter they had with their opponents transformed their opinions of the "enemy" and put faces, lives, and stories behind the people in the opposite trench. The movie was both happy and sad. Happy in that the people involved were changed and did not give in to their superiors. Sad in that the superiors end up winning by sending the soldier to other hostile frontlines where the opposition doesn 't know them and they will be forced to fire back. It is also sad to see that troops now days don't see their opponents this way either and battles still continue for many reasons but perhaps most frequently for lack of understanding. During the movie you want them to create a peaceful revolution infecting all the troops and inspiring them the ignore every order and command. This of course doesn't happen but the encouraging part is that there is ample opportunity today to make the same statements.


On an unrealted note, here is my project progress. It is being colored, but not finished being colored yet.

Senior Illustration Project Progress

I am illustrating the Ramayana for for Senior Illustration Project. It is going slowly because I have a full course load, but it is coming along nonetheless.

These are my process tests. The First is an India ink wash. The Second is a digitally colored version of the first. The Third is Gouache and Colored Pencil.























Afterwards I did numerous sketches. The following is CROP of my final sketch and composition.





Yesterday I worked for hours and inked the final sketch. Tonight and tomorrow I will work on coloring the painting digital in Photoshop. Till then.

Namasté

Last night I went to a Hindu temple in Tulsa with an on campus group called "Encounter", a group aimed at better understanding other peoples, cultures, and religions. I am not a member of Encounter but heard from a friend that they would be visiting the temple. It seemed like a great opportunity to research a project I am working on. I am illustrating the Ramayana, an ancient Indian epic, for my Senior Illustration Project. I have been reading books, and seeking out images of hindu art, sculpture, architecture and the fashions, textiles, and jewelry of India in preparation for the project. I have the first scene drawn and will hopefully get it painted this weekend.

It was interesting to talk to the priest/swami (i am not sure of his title) about his religion. He unmasked several common misconceptions. First of all he informed us that the word "Hindu" isn't a self proclaimed name. Travelers wandering into the Indus Valley named the people and their religion by the name "Hindus". "Vedic" is the self-given name to people we often refer to as "Hindus". They are Vedics because their scriptures are the Vedas.

When people think of "Hindus" they often think of them as polytheists, however, the priest assured us that orthodox Vedic belief is that there is only one God. They have many "Exalted Souls", forms which are greater than man but not God, for example Ganesha, the elephant headed deva, is an exalted soul and isn't actually god. However, they say the God has many incarnations or avatars. He said that God has come down incarnate to live in human form to show men how to live.

There are many interesting overlaps between the Christian faith and theirs upon closer examination. It is easy to think of their traditions as silly or superstitous, but many of our traditions and beliefs look the same to outsiders. The statues in the temple are consecrated and they ask for the spirit of the incarnation to come and live in the form, some of the students on the trip sounded shocked that they actually believed that, but what about us? Is it really that different? We believe that the Spirit of God lives in us. We believe that whenever two or more are gathered that He is with us in that place. Our Eucharist becomes the body and blood of Jesus. To others that must sound appalling and gross.

I am reminded of the the Sanskrit word "Namasté" which means "the divine in me greets the divine in you." It is used in India as a greeting and I hear it often at the end of yoga with Laurie McKinnon. Although it is Vedic in origin, it sounds like it could be an affirming of the Spirit within us between two Indian Christian brothers/sisters.

Día Uno

This is my first blog entry EVER. Never had a Xanga. Never had a WordPress. Never had a MySpace (okay, so I did once, but just to check up on a friend's art). I will soon have a website posted (boonesommerfeld.com) which will host my illustration and design portfolio and hopefully aid me in finding a job.