Keeping Busy

Wow...over 2 months...I'm officially a bad blogger. I'll try to be vigilant with this again.
School starts on August 20th, and I'm happy to say I'm rather excited! I've been anxious to start high school since 6th grade, if only for the thrill of a change. I'll also be in volleyball (Dear God, please help me not to die. Thank you.) and I hope to get involved in other extracurriculars. It'll be strange to have a set schedule and homework again, but I've had plenty of time to myself for lazing and the like this summer.

Sadly, I did not get to experiment with other mediums so much as I wanted to, but I have had substantial improvement, which is lovely. Art has been a fun release, it isn't something I have to resolve myself to do. There's nothing like that urge that grips you to just create. I've also had much inspiration from amazing artists all over.
One of the many is the screwbald duo (http://screwbald.deviantart.com/gallery/) I can only hope to be able to paint so well someday, and hopefully I'll get a chance to try good quality watercolors soon!
Also, my family and I went to the city's Chalkfest, where artists of the community got together to draw on the sidewalks of a public park and compete. I got a chance to see all of them, and it was truly amazing!
Brigid Vaughn/burdge-bug (http://burdge-bug.deviantart.com/gallery/) remains a constant inspiration for me as an artist and a person, I want to be like her when I grow up ;)

One thing that had a depressingly notable absence from my time this summer was reading. It occupies much of time in the school year, but it seems to take a back burner over vacations. However, I have picked it back up again, and I have a long list just waiting to be read! I'm currently starting Good Omens, a novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, as well as re-reading old favorites. I have Graceling by Kristin Cashore ready for pickup at the library, which I am psyched to grab. It came highly recommended by a good friend, and then Brigid Vaughn referenced it, striking my memory. A favorite author of mine, Rick Riordan, has composed a list of books and his reviews, (http://rickriordan.blogspot.com/) some of which I have already read, but I'm anxious to start that and see what comes of it! I'll definitely be kept busy.

With all the time that I spent not reading, I've been watching movies. (that sounded bad, didn't it?) I am ecstatic to say that I purchased a set of Studio Ghibli movies that I've been watching almost continuously since they arrived last week. (call me a nerd, I dare you) My favorites remain Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, but the others have their merits too! There's 12 movies, and I worked my way through all the ones I haven't seen except for one. A few didn't spark my interest, but I am still blown away by the talent evidenced by the animation and art in these movies. I also have a giant lineup of movies that were childhood favorites I have to watch again.

So I'm not kidding when I say I'll be keeping busy, and I'm excited to see what comes of this school year! I have my art, books, movies, and music to keep me sane, so hopefully my opinion that this is a life to love will not have changed by the time it's over.