Beginnings.

Yesterday, I watched a video that was posted online of a valedictorian's graduation speech. I was thinking to myself how hard it must be to come up with something original when it deals with the exact same issue that valedictorians have had to talk about year in and year out, at every high school, in every community, in most countries across the globe, for decades past. Think about all those clichés that just swim around in the pool of ideas, waiting to be plucked out and inserted into the speech that bursts forth nervously out of the mouths of those on the brink of freedom.

There. I even did it.

But my point is, I was trying to think of a way to start this blog without having to deal with the clichés of saying that I'm new to this whole "thing", or admitting that I haven't attempted blogging since gushing over-dramatizations of my twelve-year-old life to an unsuspecting, and probably indifferent, cyberspace. Or  having an overly positive conversation with an audience that doesn't even exist yet.

Beginnings are as hard as endings. That's the main thing valedictorians want to get across, I guess, although they generally aim for the more positive way of saying it. This beginning, I'm hoping, will not only help get me out there as an artist and all-around creative person, to share my process and my ideas and my final products, but to also provide fuel for all those things. To get me excited about the projects I undertake, and to provide an environment in which I can share and learn and grow from every step of the way.

I've always been the type of person to jot things down in a notebook or on a loose scrap of paper. I hope that this blog will provide a way to organize some of that jumble into something I can keep track of. What you can expect to find here will be documentation of ideas and inspiration, school or personal projects, and past work in photography, drawing, and ceramics. I would also like to keep track of the henna design work that I've been delving into with renewed interest since starting a booth at the Downtown Nanaimo Farmers market this summer.

So here we are, grads (I mean... bloggers). Standing on the brink of a new beginning. A new adventure. A new challenge. Will you hold my hand (making sure not to crush my fingers by grasping too hard), let the wind tousle our hair, take a deep breath, and jump with me?