Mellie The Artist

Updates!

2009-08-30T20:05:00.001-07:00

Ok, a new semester starts tomorrow! Which means my online classes start tomorrow and my traditional classes on Tuesday and then so on lol. I am going to be taking a special topics art class focusing on portraiture, color theory, art history II (online), and psychology focusing on human sexuality. I'm stoked because after this semester I will have only one more class, that being art appreciation, to take and I graduate from WNC with my AA Fine Arts! Again...STOKED!!!!

At the end of this week, on Friday, my good friend Monique and I are heading down to San Diego. One, to visit her boyfriend, Josh who is stationed there with the Marines before he goes to his next station, second to have a girls road trip, and third to get out of town! It should be fun, two days of sittin at the beach because last time I went I wasn't able to go to the beach. We will be there all weekend til Labor day monday and head back on that day. Should be fun, I'll take lots of pictures and blog when I get home!

Oh just for fun...today I helped D (Dwayne) with his "man-cave", the office/geust/game room. D has made this room into an all Dallas Cowboy decor! I'm a fan of the St. Louis Rams ;) So he got this fat head helmet sticker to put on the wall. He came and asked me to help him put his fat head on the wall....well between D and I we are always joking around with each other. My response was well just bend forward and run straight into the wall >:D He found is semi-funny.
I told him it was all good, and ended up helping him of course!
Score! 1 for Mellie and I lost count of points for D...

Everyone have a great week...weekend....I'll catch you all up later!

San Diego Part 4. Last part LOL

2009-08-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

While in San Diego, I was able to spend 4th of July there. I headed with Leah and her family to a place just about two miles away from her house and by a reservation. We were maybe 500-700 yards away from the shoot off spot.

From how close we were it sounded like bombs were going off.

It was pretty intense, and I was battling bugs while watching...so yea intense.

:( This picture didn't turn out so well.

And the finale was really good. Not like the ones at home in Fallon.

The next day or so, Leah and her girls and I headed back home to Fallon. It was a great trip that I really enjoyed. I enjoy being away, but I do miss home by the time I get home. I'll be making another trip to San Diego in the near future!

San Diego Part 3.

2009-08-25T18:49:00.001-07:00

Sorry, sorry for the delay...I haven't been able to blog so here we go Part 3.

So I had to take a picture of this crazy monkey at the San Diego's Wild Animal Park, he was ferocious that day....screeching and hollering. He needs a nap!

After that crazy monkey, we went on a park tour, Journey into Africa, showing the numerous animals in the park vacinity.

The Rhino! I believed the tour guide said it was the male, thus why he's laying there by himself...I think because there was a baby boy rhino with its mother. You know how Alfa males get or whatnot!

Decided to take a picture of myself on the bus, LOL.

The park had some Wallabees (forgive my spelling), some crazy birds, Zebras...and Giraffes. I'm so vertically challenge that I just love Giraffes, but only their height!

After our tour, we started to walk to our next activity, we got to see Lions, but they were snoozing in the shade because we felt that we were in hell's kitchen(that's hot!).

And, and, and ELEPHANTS! There even was a baby elephant in the back!

Too much fun with the Elephants!

Hehehe, Me again! Along our hot trail we stopped at some misters (that I have no pic of lol) behind a fan that would hit you in hopes of helping you cool off.

Dino Mountian was a new exhibit that opened at the park. We took the girls and saw all the "real" mechanical dinosaurs!

Yea, Leah is getting eaten....no one tried to help LOL.

Yep, thats my new friend Spike and I. Looks like he wants more than just saying hi...he wants dinner!

If you know me at all...I take random shots.

This is Bob the T-Rex....he roared really loud that it scared Alex.

I think Bob also wants to eat me....He and Spike have a conspiracy going.

After Dino Mountain, we were able to see the new baby cheetahs in their little incubator sort of thing.

And this is the funniest part of the day, at least for me! Feeding these crazy birds!

Leah had helped Alex feed the birds.

So about two seconds before I snapped this picture, a bird flew onto Kylee's making her freak out and start crying. I know it's not too funny, but her face was just hillarious...then the bird freaked out jumping onto Leah's arm and left a present for Leah...

After Kylee's incident...not but five minutes later, Leah was helping Alex again with her food cup that 4-5 birds came swarming around Alex, and again two seconds before I snapped this picture. Getting Alex's shocked and scared face!

This is my hand compared to that of a male Gorilla.

Ok, its hard to see, but I swear there is a gorilla in that cave...

And it wouldn't be a wild animal park without my favorite animal in the entire world....the flamingo! Her name is Victoria ;)

Ok, there was this huge life size bronze cast of a Rhino, so I wanted to tell him, his name is John, all about my day at the park. LOL.

John wanted a picture together, for keep sakes. So we took one, he was nice.

Alrighty, that was a fun, tiring, hot, hot, hot, amazing, fullfilling, did I mention hot day at San Diego's Wild Animal Park!

San D. Part 2...Sea World

2009-07-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

Sea World!!! Oh my soooo many creatures...well duh...LOL. I've never been to Sea World before, so it was a great experience!

I'm just showing some pictures and giving synopsis' of a very long fun day!

That's me (LOL) touching a star fish! It's very hard, kinda like a rock. And there where signs everywhere saying don't take the star fish out of the water...duh...they need to breath under water! LOL

This is probably Shamu #82 or something...LOL He's doing tricks swimming around.

Electric Eels!! Crazy....

A manaray...see my flash to the left... I was so afraid that I was going to blind all of them.

I was able to feed the manaray...it's like a slimmy rubber vaccum sucking the piece of fish (bleh) off your hand!

We saw a show and it was a great one. Circus del Mar or something. These guys are crazy...while doing their routines the stage was moving up and down.

So I think he needs his teeth brushed!!!?

I could fit in this mouth of a shark from about some millions of years ago...

OOOOOO...DuNu DuNu...LOL

Hahaha, the Polar bear ate peanut butter and apples off the window...so cool!

Oh, Baby Baluga! Interesting looking animal.

Manatees...enough said!

AND MY FAVORITE!

The Pink Flamingo! So pretty.

My new friends and I....I love it!

Soooooo many of them!

I took soooo many pictures that my camera was full by the end of the night. I'll just post pictures hehehe.

San Diego Part 1.

2009-07-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

I was able to go to San Diego...well Alpine for the first time ever. I have only been up north to San Fransico and Concord. My friend Leah asked me to ride along, take her siblings Mallory and Mikey home, and hang out for the week with her family and be there to drive back. Leah has two little girls, Alex (5) and Kylee (1)...so hopefully I was a lot of help.

4 AM....

Alex passed out...

Kylee passed out...

Mallory and Mikey...

We left around 4 in the morning with everyone and thing packed up on Tuesday. It was an interesting ride down to San D. Now the funny part of this whole day driving down was the "Grape", the purple van that we borrowed from our friend Ashley. Everything was ok til about 15 minutes outside Bishop. The needles on the spedometer, fuel gage, and the hot/cool thing just went screwy. We were suddenly looking like we were going 120mph...and on empty. So we pulled over and turn off the car and turned it back on, it worked all good. Leah texed Ashley asking about what to do...her reply was "just wack the dash and it should be good". Hahahahaha good grief. After that, Leah was checking the outside of the car...we were speeding in a construction zone, we didn't mean to. And!!!!!! A highway patrol car was sitting right there drove up and asked if we were ok and our reply was it wasn't our car and it was making a noise...we didn't get a ticket LOL. Anyways, we were on our way, just making it to Schripps Ranch or whatever when the "Grape" overheated and the coolant started to boil out of the container...fun!
The temperature gauge broke then the fan broke making it difficult to cool the "Grape" down. So $450 and 3 hours later the "Grape" was fixed and we made it to Alpine where Leah's family lives.

That was our day driving to San D.

I love this game!

2009-06-28T22:50:00.001-07:00

Fallon's Regional Courts

We decided to play Tennis this evening and hopefully once a week from now on. The Regional courts are not that great, but they are open all day and have a quarter machine to have lights turn on when it gets dark.

Hmmm...aaaaaahhhhh

There is just something about a fresh can of Tennis balls...

Serving up a hit.

Getting ready for the return.

Tiffy serving it up!

Dwayne returning a hit.

Steven finally showed up LOL to play!

Jordan came to play as well .

Jordan came along with Steven and played for the first time. We taught him how to hold the racket and hit the ball...which he did really well for his first time. A natural lol.

Tiffany and I before we left.

We played doubles, Tiffy and I, Steve and Dwayne. Steven and Dwayne beat us twice 6-0 and 6-3 or 4. It was very fun and tough as in running around and hitting the ball. Jordan played a match on Steven's team, Dwayne and I played....match ended that we won 6-0 (I think) LOL.

Here's to more match nights and toned muscles LOL

2009 Graduations!

2009-06-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

Steven and I at his party!

June 5th, 2009 Steven, my little brother has finally graduated from Churchill County High School. Woo hoo! Don't have to go back there ever again for anything. Ok, yes it sounds like I didn't like high school...well I don't, I hated my high school years. It was a nice ceremony, all new as well. This year it was held at the football field instead of the fairgrounds, had a fly over with helicopters in thier honor, the scoreboard flashed every students name, and they also had a recording with all the students thanking whomever playing before the ceremony started. Very nice I have to say. But it was freezing as well!!! Felt like I was at a football game.

Steven and Mike Nolan (walking buddy)

New Grads!

The Family!

Saturday was Steven's open house at Tiffy and Dwayne's place (well mine too if ya want to get technical). A few family and friends stopped by and we barbequed hot dogs and hamburgers and had a graduation cake with Steven's face on it! We had our California family (Aunt Lisa, Uncle Bill, and Amanda...Chris was at home and Aunt Kelly) visit for the graduation but they had to take off early to get back for Chris's graduation.

We also played Rock Band in the geust/office/game room! I suck at the drums, but Mum thought it was a great picture shot!

Forever brother and sister!

For my graduation Steven bought my my first luggage set. So in return, I bought him his first luggage set. I wrapped half of it in graduation paper and the other half in left over notes from the classes I took during the previous semester at WNC.

On Sunday! We woke up early to drive to Concord Cali. for my cousin Chris's graduation that evening. Made it in enough time to freshen up in the hotel and head to the ceremony. It was nice, but I couldn't hear a thing...so I zoned into my Mellieland thinking of when I graduated. Its been two years since I graduated. Anyways, then we went for his party at Christopher's Pizza (lol) and I ate salad. Not a huge fan of pizza. It was a nice thingy lol, we then went to the hotel and headed home the next day! Whew I just like travelling lol...I've been doing plenty of that.

I kicked Steven's butt at air hockey....I haven't played in days (years lol)!!!!!

My cousin Christopher and I

At Chris's party, I was able to re-meet my Dad's side of the family. I haven't seen them since I was a baby (or toddler)...or so I'm told. So, it was nice meeting them all again.

Tiffy, Me, Aunt Karen, Uncle Mark, Steven

Me, Steven, Grandpa (Truman)Sanders, Dwayne, Tiffy

Fred and I are takin' off....out of the way Rubbles!

Chris and I again...after a game of pool

On our way back, stopped at a gas station we all got scratch cards. Since we all are over 18 now! LOL I was the only one who won!

Two dollars booya!!!!

Congrats grads of 2009, love ya!

Grimes Point

2009-06-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

Grimes Point!

AAAAHHHH Giant Lizard!

Not the same lizard

The weather was warm and sunny with a light breeze on Sunday. I was chillin' in my room writing about my Washington trip and in comes Tiffy saying we're going to Grimes Point, wanna come?

Halo and T on our way

I have never been there before so I said sure. It was fun, Dwayne, Tiffy, Halo, and myself drove over to Grimes Point and hiked aroundD driving!

looking at petrogylphs from "about 5000BC" as Dwayne geussed and he was right! People were here in Fallon sooooo many years ago...why? Who knows...kinda like why are we here? We

Hangin' on to Halo on our way :D

hiked up the mountain looking at the all the pretty carvings LOL with Halo leading the way. Then we took another trail that was a 2 mile round trip thing. I'm happy to say I'm not totally out of

He loves being outside

shape, but do need to step it up some.

T made it to the top!

HA! I made it!

D reading information

T and I sister pic

Washington!

2009-05-31T11:17:00.001-07:00

Hello Washington!!!!

Me standing on the High Steel bridge

I travelled for the first time by myself completely not knowing anyone to Washington. I left Monday the 25th of May to catch my 3pm flight to Seattle/Tacoma airport then travel an hour or so to Shelton WA. I went to visit my good friend Jordan Ward and his family. I haven't seen the whole family since my Junior year, but I've seen Jordan and "Mama" Ward once or twice since then. I arrived there and Jordan and I had not told anyone I was coming.....HUGE SURPRISE! It was great, we called Mama Ward and said that Jordan had gotten her a laptop, so she needed to sit on the couch with her eyes closed. She's a goober, she had a pillow in her lap, I took the pillow then she holds her hands out and Jordan was like put your hands down. After she put her hands down, I sat on her lap and she opened her eyes. It took her about 2 seconds to realize what was going on and then she freaked and squished me til I couldn't breath....Death by Hugs! That was a great day...my Monday.

Tuesday, we had gotten up and ready and went to the school where Mama Ward works (English instructor), had lunch together and I drew a scene from Romeo & Juliet on her white board because she was teaching that play. I can't help but draw on the whiteboards and got good feedback from those crazy lil' (tall) kids. Jordan and I left the school and decided to head to Olympia which is about half an hour away from Shelton or so I'm told. In Olympia we were thinking of getting tattoos, but it turned out to be more on the expensive side. After the tat shop, we headed to the mall and walked around til we decided to see The Terminator: Salvation (or however its titled). It was a pretty good film....SPOILER!!!....there will be another film after this one, they left it open. After the film, we went home and hung out with the family! Which I missed...like the good ol' days well sorta.

Wednesday, well, lets just say it was a driving around day. We wanted to go to Seattle and check out the Old Curiousity Shop and whatever else was on the "boardwalk". We started driving to Bremerton to take the ferry to Seattle. Well, Lady Ward said to take one highway, so that's what we did. I took a few pictures of the greenery, and water, and cheeseburger! A food shop had a giant cheeseburger on top of the porch...so me being me, I snapped a pic! We drove for a half an hour not seeing any sign for Bremerton. We pulled over and Jordan called Mama Ward she said to call Mr. Ward (his Dad). I picked flowers and took some more pictures while Jordan was on the phone. Mr. Ward said we had to come back to Shelton, then take a different highway so that took another half an hour. By the time we got to Bremerton it had taken us an hour or so to almost two hours to get there. We figured out what time we wanted to take off on the ferry and we had to wait a little bit so I took more pictures from the Navy ships around the area. We got on the ferry ride, and that took an hour! While we were on the ferry we noticed that it takes an hour to get to Seattle. We only paid for two hours where we parked the car...it was a fun hour to Seattle then right back on the ferry for another hour to get back just incase the car got towed. Well after our little excursion, we went back to Shelton and hung out with the family again! ;)

Sittin' and Starrin' in the middle of the road

Thursday was the easiest day. All morning Jordan and I just hung around the house and watched the tellie. About 4 or 5 we picked up Mama Ward, Mariah, Connor, and Grandma to go to High Steel bridge. This bridge is HIGH!!!! And one lane. It was so nice and pretty, trees, waterfalls, a little river. I enjoyed the time with the Ward family there...Angus was at a track meet and Mr. Ward was workin'...missed out on time with them.

Looking out on the side

Mariah and I

Connor and I

Jordan and I

Mama Ward and I

Yes, its high up there

Friday was my travel home day...Seattle/Tacoma airport is huge!!!!! Goodness, there is like three security points and all about 5 gates are all behind the three security points. Each one is full of people lined up. All sorts of craziness! So I got on the plane, had an aisle seat which was a bummer but oh well. Came into Reno, was picked up by my friend Marlene...and came home!!!!!!

The only picture I could take of myself without freaking other people out!!!!!

I tell you what, I did miss Fallon and everyone here. You never know how much you miss something til you're away from it for more than a few hours or days!

End of the semester!

2009-05-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

My report card!
Sociology 101 - A
Biology 100 - A
Portfolio - A
US/NV Constitution - C

I passed all my classes this semester and am so happy. I had some problems last semester with one of my classes that made this semester a must pass semester...no slacking. So I did what had to be done LOL and I passed.
The other day I recieved my Financial Aid offer letter in the mail saying I can keep attending school next Fall!! I planned on graduating this fall and walking in the spring, but the Art Appreciation class I was taking this fall, I pushed to next Spring. Why? In the Spring, Art Appreciation is taught in Fallon (so I don't have to travel to Carson City three times a week) by Gil Martin and during Spring break the class as a whole has the opportunity to go to Madrid Spain!!! I'm so going, I missed it last spring becuase I took other classes.
This next year will be a roller coaster, but I like those so I think I can handle it!

Thats all for now!

"Exaggerations" Art Show

2009-04-25T10:05:00.001-07:00

First of all, I want to thank everyone who helped me through out the whole semester while I was completing my paintings! Also to everyone who helped out with refreshments for my show and everyone who came to the show. I got a lot of great feedback, and great critique on my weak parts.....thank you, thank you, thank you.

Me before the show!

Friday April 24th, was my show. It went really well, better than I expected! A good crowd came to view the show, talked to me, and ate refreshments (there was a lot!). I really enjoyed speaking with everyone. My family was there and Mum gave me a rose with a card that said "Our Favorite Artist"....I loved it!!!! My friends as well were there and it was so good to have friends and family there to talk to between talking to those who I had just met.

Look at those refreshments!!! Two thumbs up!

Brenda (Mum), Steven, Me, and Tiffany....Dwayne had to run back to his job.

Me, Auntie Buttons (Elaine), and cousin Jordan...his painting is on the left side of the photo, our right side behind us in the photo.

I am so happy that my dear friend Pilar Crooks got to view my very first art show. She lives in Reno now so we try to meet up for coffee or lunch or something every few weeks or so.

Pilar and I

After the show, we headed to Jerry's for coffee and caught up on life and laughed and giggled and talked about whats ahead in our lives. Such a great evening! Then the fun continued, my best friend Brandi took me out to dinner to celebrate. We ate at La Fiesta, then headed over to the local coffee shop Jive N Java for coffee, friends, and some chillin' tunes!

A Good Friday

2009-04-14T13:52:00.001-07:00

Friday April 10th was a great day. Even though I had to be at Western Nevada College by 8:30 AM I was thinking that it was going to be just another ordinary day. I had gone up to Carson to WNC Carson campus for a Student Employee Appreciation lunch. It was a very nice lunch, only ran about an hour to an hour and a half...great food! All the student employees were given a certificate of appreciation of sorts, then awards were given to New Student Employees, my co-workers and friends Marlene Purcell in the main office and Paul Roberts in the library each recieved an award. Then the Student Employee of the Year 2008-2009 awards were up. To my surprise my name was called! I was thinking of whom was going to recieve this award since there was only a few of us student employees from Fallon campus at the lunch. I was assuming it was going to be someone else, but "for the Fallon campus, this award goes to Melanie Black, Science Mathematic and Engineering division" or something to that effect ;) My supervisor Monica Fairbanks had nominated me! I have and am still working with Monica for about a year and a half now. She gave a really nice speech on how dedicated I am to working in her office. Let me tell you...her office is like a circus! Instructors running about, students flying in and out, telephones ringing off the hook, the dreaded copy machine always coming up with ways to stop our "groove". And I just love it, Monica and I are a team as Janet in the main office puts it.

After the lunch, we headed back to Fallon campus to set up the Phi Theta Kappa Induction ceremony. Phi Theta Kappa is an honor society for a two year college. Something about maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or 3.5 or higher, and have passed 12 transfer credits to be accepted into PTK. I am happy to say that I got accepted this year (semester)! I now belong to Phi Theta Kappa, Beta Theta Iota chapter honor society of Western Nevada College!!!!! My family came to watch, although Tiffany had to leave a little early to get to work that evening but she saw all the important parts. Mum took my picture, Steven took my picture...and other people took my picture...I was blinded by flashing lights most likely along with all the other inductees. Afterwards, my best friend Brandi Kloes and I went to dinner at La Fiesta and it was sooooo good. It was such a busy and looooonnnnggg day and it turned out FANTABULOUS!

Next week, April 20-24th is my Art show, "Exaggeration", and the closing reception is the Friday the 24th at 4:30pm Hope to see all who can come there!

Art Show!!!

2009-03-22T20:35:00.001-07:00

I will be having my very own art show. Yes, it will be just my pieces of work. My pieces will be hanging at the Western Nevada College Art Gallery (160 Campus Way, Fallon NV) April 20th to April 24th. There will be a closing reception the 24th (Friday) at 4:30pm to about 6:30pm. It is the only day I can do a reception that will not interfere with my classes during the week.
My pieces are themed around portrait paintings of friends and family, done in black and white. If you have any question, call me up or email me...

Hi My Name Is...

2009-03-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hey all, my name is Melanie. I figured this blog business may help with postings for my art pieces and updates for any art shows I have. Plus, anyone can see how I'm doing or what crazy stories I have to post...
Lets see how this goes.