“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” 
― Marilyn Monroe

I believe this 100%! Everything in life happens for a reason. I definitely appreciate everything I have right now, and how well everything has been going lately. It’s crazy to actually feel that everything is right. I’m so excited for what’s to come!

For the past couple days, I have been uploading many pictures that I have been working on for my next midterm. I call them invisible self portraits. They are pictures of me, and in each of them, I am somehow disappearing, or not all put together.

In my first semester here in Italy, I did a series called Empty Spaces. I took pictures of places and things all over Italy that just represented emptiness to me. It was from a feeling I had. A feeling from being in a place where I knew nobody, nobody knew me, and a language was spoken that I could not understand. Furthermore, it goes back to my past, my history. I feel like a lot of my artwork comes from a place I was in emotionally in my teen years. Things often push me to feeling that way again, and I choose to express it through my artwork.

With this new series, I feel that it relates to my previous body of work. In the Empty Spaces series, you see the places and things that made me feel invisible, and now in this new series, you are given the chance to see how exactly I feel. Things or people in life often push me to feel down and invisible. I won’t let them get me down.

My parents will be here in 6 days! Wow, time really flew by. It seems like only yesterday I was at the airport in Toronto leaving to come back here to Florence. I have gotten so much work done so that I don’t have to worry about anything when they are here. So much photoshopping. So much picture taking. I’m excited to be done with my midterm. It sucks that it has to be the week people are coming to see me, but oh well. It’ll only take up a couple hours. I’m looking forward to the next half of this semester! So close to being done here, and home for good. Not sure how I feel about that! I miss home, but it’s been really amazing to experience all of this!

Invisible Self Portraits

Attempting to discover where to begin

You’re weighed down, you’re full of something,

you’re underneath it all

There’s no need to rush,

We’re all just waiting, waiting to die

Invisible Self Portraits

Invisible Self Portraits

Invisible Self Portraits

I lived in Toronto for 2 years while going to school, and I moved back home so that I didn’t have to pay for my apartment while I’m in Italy. Well, the truth is, it’s nice to be home again, but it’s also frustrating at times. I’m sure everybody’s families get on their nerves sometimes. It’s just nice to know you’re always welcome to come home.

While I was gone, I lost touch with many people, including some friends I considered to be really good friends. It sucked at the time, but I learned who really cared about me. Marisa for example was one person who always makes the effort to talk to me, and I do the same with her. No matter where we are, our friendship has always stayed strong.

There’s a couple people I wanted things to work out with but it just seemed like they didn’t care. I ended up moving back home, and thought maybe things would go back to the way they were, but that didn’t happen either. Then, a lot of changes happened in my life, and I know now that I have the friends I really need in my life. However, there’s always room for more. It’s nice to have close friends. They’re hard to come by these days.

I know things wont be the way they were but that’s the thing about life, it always changes.

You say things all the time with intentions of making me angry. I don’t do that. I say one thing I’m happy about and you can’t handle that. What the heck?! I’m happy for you and support you in what you do. Why is it so difficult for you to do the same?

Worlds greatest mysteries

On every street, every car, every surface a name
Tonight the streets are ours and we’re writing and saying
‘Don’t let them take control
No, we won’t let them take control’   <3

Personally, I find it frustrating when people take things I say the wrong way, or just assume a comment was about them. If you take a comment from me the wrong way, the truth is, I’m a pretty sarcastic and joke around a lot, and I never mean to do any harm. If you think something has to do with you for any reason, why not just ask me? I’m pretty easy to talk to! Since I thought this was a pretty interesting yet extremely frustrating topic, I found a little article on misinterpretation that kind of helps explain why people tend to take things out of context.

“But even very clear and simple sentences exchanged between close friends, family, or lovers, who share much of this common background, can often be misunderstood or misconstrued. As a result, the listener infers a completely different meaning or intention than the speaker meant to convey. This is because each person speaks against the background of his or her personal history, experiences, impressions, beliefs, values and more. When a person speaks, it is he or she who is speaking, not some mechanical word generator—there is a person behind it, a person who has lived and loved, laughed and cried, learned and forgotten. And as a result, obvious as it may sound, he or she is a different person than you are, and this informs his or her communication, adding layers of interpretation that are often hidden from the view of others.”

Take from it whatever you desire! I think it’s pretty spot on, and a good little blurb to help understand.