My face.

I'm five (almost four!) days away from departure to Spain and this week consists of a lot of "lasts", some good and some sad. A good, I would say, is today was my last day of work for a while. Not that working is all that bad and neither of my jobs are very hard, but I miss school a bit and learning new things. So I am excited to be moving out of the working world for a while and back into the academic again. A sad last, that goes along with stopping work, is leaving my boss, friend, mentor, adopted grandma, Ann. This summer concluded the 4th year I've worked for her, and what a blessing it has been! Not only do I get to go feed and take care of a horse first thing in the morning (which is a good thing, I consider myself very lucky!) but I also get to spend part of my day with her. I can never emphasize how insightful and wonderful she is, she has helped me grow into the person I am and has shown me that no matter what happens, life continues. You can read what I wrote about her on my blog two years ago here: Farm life.
I'm thinking about Ann especially today because I spent all morning with her, well not with her per say, but in the same space! She is a member of the Thompson Valley Art League and they invited me to go be a model for portrait painting. Quite the experience. I got to sit in a chair and stare at the same spot for four hours while six pairs of eyes studied my face...ok, maybe only fun for the conceited, but the awkwardness of the situation started to wear away after the first hour. The cool part was getting to see the different styles of paintings and how each person put me onto canvas. It was really quite flattering at times because everyone kept telling how I was a great model to have and any angle was great for my face, it's always nice to hear those kinds of things. :)
Well I thought I would share the UNFINISHED paintings (I think the artists would appreciate the emphasis) because I think they are all very good and interesting. Maybe at some point I will get to see the finished products of my portraits.

Artists in order: Ann Delzell, Peggy Keagle, Jennifer Cline, Jeff Brooks