Rushed Illustration Volume 1

As the title clearly states , I didn't put a whole lot of time into making this little illustration, but it helped me remember the right things to bring. Tomorrow I am leaving for St. Louis to stay with some awesome friends, and I can't wait. I've never been to St. Louis, so that makes it even more exciting. 

This illustration includes a couple of the things I'll be jamming into my Kanken backpack five minutes before we leave, since I tore everything out to make sure that my earbuds were in there, which they were. Well, that's my prediction for how tomorrow morning will go, anyway. I'm bringing my camera, and hopefully I'll actually use it! I'll be sure to upload what photos I do take on here, and maybe a person or two will actually see them, or maybe that will just keep them from taking up space on my camera.

Wow, it's 9:34 PM, I need to go to bed by ten so I can get up early, I still have packing to do, my room is a mess, my hair really needs brushed, I need to do some yoga, and it's the worst blogging time ever, so naturally I'm feeling really chatty and in the mood to blog. Of course!

The drive to St. Louis is 9 hours (!!!) and I'm guessing the first 4.5 will be fun-I'll draw, doodle, knit, listen to an audio book, watch a movie, jam out to Mac Demarco, but then for the other 4.5, I'll be screaming to get out of the car and stretch. Still, I'm excited. Traveling makes me so happy, and I'm pretty sure I haven't been somewhere far and new since November, when I went to California. 

I was expecting to write one cheesy sentence like "Sorry I haven't blogged, my life's so hectic, I will try to in the future!" but I think this is better. 

So if you just read all of that-which I am not expecting many people too-then here, this is for you. I apologize for the lameness of that link, and if you see me in real life then I'll give you a real one. 

Well, I guess I should probably finish packing and everything. Happy July everyone :)

-India 

Blood, Cassete Tapes, and Aging

Today is Sunday, June 7th. These are two watercolor paintings I did today, and they are my favorites out all of my most recent work.

 I haven't done a personal diary-style post in a while, mainly just quick posts so that I can say that I've blogged, when really I never put a whole lot of effort into them. 

My birthday is exactly one month away, and I'll be turning 14. I haven't really decided how I feel about that yet. Of course, I'm excited. Making a list of what I want, and giving it to my parents, and the anticipation of the gifts, and the cake and everything is always fun when you're young. But the idea of being 14 is something I haven't figured out. 

13 is a fun age, while also a simultaneously terrible age. Finally being able to call yourself a teenager is great, but then all of the hormones and expected responsibilities tied in make it less great. People have always told me that I'm mature for my age, and I started to figure that out at a young age, especially when I would rather hang out with my mom's friends than my own. I'm still that way, and I've made more older friends in the past year who wouldn't realize that I was only 13 until something about age or grade came up and I told them. They're always surprised, which is cool, but then I always feel kind of young admitting that I'm only 13. So in a way, 14 is good, because when that does happen, it sounds a lot better than 13, at least in my opinion. But 14 is such an in-limbo kind of age. I'll be back at the bottom of the totem pole in school, but more likely to get that "what a teenager" look from adults. But while I've been writing this post, I've sort of realized that age is just a number, decided by humans, so that we are able to identify how much time we have spent on Earth. In the long run, it's not a big deal, unless we make it a big deal, which I am. My mom and I were talking about that earlier today, how everything could be a big deal if we make it, or it could mean nothing at all, if we let it. Sometimes that can be hard to grasp, and getting caught up in little things, such as what it's like to be 14, can be easier. 

Here's a random work of advice: blogging with a cone of mango sorbet in one hand is really difficult, and I wouldn't recommend it. 

I'm going to dedicate this year of being 14 (even though it hasn't even started) to becoming a better artist. 

Spending Money Puts You In a Real Party Mood

 I've always been pretty easily fascinated by certain things. Some things draw me in, and I can't seem to get away from them. Andy Warhol has done that.

Every aspect of him interests me, and the more I learn, the more interested I am.

Right now I am also extremely into the Velvet Underground, who were friends of Andy's, and a big part of his work.

So it is perfect that I am getting to be part of an advisory board at the Warhol Museum, one for just teens, and only about 15 teens from the entire city. In the advisory board, our main purpose is to put together a huge even (which takes place in May) at the Warhol, which will include bands, fashion shows, art making, refreshments, and more. So far it's been a blast. I love getting to spend time at the museum all the time, and being surrounded by the work and world of Andy Warhol. 

Anyway, back to the post. Because of my obsession with him, I decided to Andy-ize some stuff, and even draw him. 

I made a couple of pins, and a necklace quoting him. 

Here's a bad quality up-close shot of my drawing.

Andy Warhol was such an unapologetic person, and I really admire him for that. In one of his interviews, he is asked a question, and he just says to the interviewer something along the lines of: Can you just give me the answers and I'll say them?
In another, with Edie Sedgwick, as soon as they sit down to be interviewed, Edie announces that Andy will not be answering questions at all. Whenever he was asked something, he'd whisper a terse answer in Edie's ear, and she'd tell it.
He was (and is) so different than any other celebrities. He could not have cared less about people's opinions of him, and he embraced his social-awkwardness. His varying work and process inspires me a lot lately, and I wish I had more time to make art of my own.

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately. My blog needs some work and attention, and I will hopefully be giving it some of that soon. I also have some pages from my sketchbook to post, but I haven't gotten around to that either. My Saturday art classes end soon ( :( ) but then I will have more time to blog which is good!

Keep it Unreal. (new tofurky collection!!!)

This week didn't exactly have the greatest start, understandably. It's the first week back from winter break, it's freezing and it's snowy. Today, however, it got much better! There was a two hour delay this morning, so I didn't have to go to school until ten. Then, when I got home, the greatest thing ever was waiting for me.

On my front step was a package from my favorite food company ever, which you probably guessed from the title. Yep, you got it: TOFURKY!

They knew I was a huge fan, and sent me some really, really cool stuff! It made my day. Wait, no, my week actually. It was extremely exciting.

Here is the contents of that package in photo form:

 

I think their motto is hilarious. 

Apparently it'd made from organic material. Green is the color I would've picked for the shirt, so that was another plus. 

 This is just everything laid out. There was a pamphlet about tofurky too.  

I loved Tofurky before, but now I love them even more. (Woah that rhymed! I should be a poet!!) I eat their products pretty much on a daily basis, and have been for so long, and I love them. So, not only does their food taste amazing, but they are great in the customer service department as well. 

For anyone who isn't a Tofurky connoisseur or has never even tried it, I would really recommend it! They're a great company, and also their t-shirts are super comfy ✌ʕʘ‿ʘʔ✌. 

Tea house vibes, bath bombs, and mugshots.

Sunday, Jan. 4th.
Sadly, today is my last day of winter break, and I return to school tomorrow. I am not too sad, though, because I got everything I wanted to done, and I had a blast these past two weeks. Yesterday and the day before were especially great. Here's what I did:

Friday: our friends who live two hours away drove down to visit. After a lunch of spring rolls, noodles and Asian salad, we headed to our favorite tea house, Dobra. 

The menu is the size of a novel, filled with flowering teas, lychee tea, black and green, snacks, and of course, bubble tea. 

This is a Polaroid of me and my friend Sierra. It was taken by her brother Morgan.  

We all got bubble tea. It was fantastic.

I'm pretty sure they were both oblivious to the fact that I took this. 

I could spend hours just hanging out in Dobra. It's so cozy and chill. 

Next, we went to a secondhand clothing store, but left soon since we were all full of bubble tea and needed to use the bathroom in a coffee shop next door. That's where this snapchat was taken. Morgan is wearing two pins that I made.

Our final stop was to Lush, and it was really fun, as well as kind of weird. The Lush we went to is inside of a Macy's, and there was hardly any person in the entire store. It felt apocalyptic, but no one was paying attention to us, so we could do whatever we wanted in the store. 

The Lush guys gave us a demo. 

I bought the pink bath bomb. The next picture is from when I actually used it. 

It was great, except for all of the confetti that was stuck in my hair afterwards. 

Timeless

It's hard for any experience to really, really feel timeless, because of the constant change in technology, style of the world, etc, but this day did. It was the typical perfect fall day, including apple orchards and pumpkins and farm animals and rosy cheeks and jean jackets. 

I made some new friends. 

After saying goodbye to these adorable new friends of mine, my family and I headed into the orchards and picked over 90 apples, and I also ate way more of them than I should have….but it's hard not to try each one. 

 My mom and I spotted some sunflowers growing and immediately decided it was a great photo op.

An Introduction

This is the last picture of me as a 12 year old, when I was still living in Virginia.

August 6, 2014.

Today, much like many of the past days this summer, was productive and busy, while at the same time, calm. So far the summer in which I officially entered the teen years, (which would be this summer) has been the strangest, and probably most difficult one yet. As if becoming a teenager-which comes with sudden bursts of moodiness, angst, short lasting obsessions with certain things and many other feelings and situations-wasn't enough, my dad's job moved and he had to get a new job in Pennsylvania, seven hours from where I lived and two from where I was born. He moved up there in May to work, while my mom, brother and I stayed back in Virginia and finished the school year. We lived like that throughout June and half of July, my dad driving down on the weekends, but that ended when we rented our perfect house out to a family that needed to move in by July 15. That was the very day that we packed up most of our belongings, put our lives on hold, and drove to my moms parents house to temporarily live, which is where I am writing from. To be exact, I'm sitting against the wall on the carpet, next to my cat Jazzy, and across from my grandma who is knitting. Although she really isn't one of those grandmas, who sits around knitting or baking cookies all day. In fact, she's very opposite. She makes kombucha and does yoga and things like that. Anyway, enough about my grandma.

Initially, I sort of wanted to move. I was living in a very, very conservative and preppy area, where no one wore doc martins or was vegan, and was ready to escape. I never felt like I fit in, even with my friends, so naturally when I realized I never would fit in with them, I started trying to rebel even more. I dressed in lots of black, became vegan, listened to music my school-mates had never heard of until I was done listening to it, and whatever they did,
tried to do the opposite. The whole time I was also trying to figure myself and my style out. And now, after experimenting with many different things, such as music, clothing, food, and hobbies, I've realized that I can't settle on one thing, since it changes day to day. 

For a few weeks, I really didn't want to move, since my mom was very unhappy because of it and that made me unhappy too, and I just wanted my life and family put back together. They were definetly some of the worst weeks ever for me, and of course my birthday (July seventh) fell right in the middle of them. 

By now, I'm mixed on moving. I love new people and new experiences, but I have realized things that I miss about where I used to live. Luckily, living at my grandparents has proven to be very good for me. I've been able to sort out my feelings and work on many of my projects and not be overwhelmed by things to do, since I never have anything I have to do, just what I want to do, such as finally starting up my blog, which is serving more as a public diary for me, where I can unleash my messy thoughts, art, and emotions, post my outfits and experiences, and list some vegan recipes and other projects that I make.