The School Year Approaches

The fall semester is right around the corner (literally, it begins on Monday). And my mind is buzzing with ideas for the up coming year. While I won't be taking that many classes, each class will absorb every ounce of time and dedication that I have. 

"Why?" You say. I am glad that you asked! As you may or may not know I am graduating in three semesters, which means that my senior show preparation must begin! As a BFA (Bachelors in Fine Arts) major, I am required to prepare for and have a show my last semester. This means that I have to start preparing my pieces that will be in my show (scary, huh?!). My show has to have a theme and I am happy to announce that my theme will be, Voices in My Head. Let me explain...

This summer, I had the opportunity and privilege to intern at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. I worked very closely with children of all ages and they inspired me. The ideas and imagination of a child's mind has always fascinated me. Their minds are endless and full of questions and wonder. I guess I connect to them because I have been able to keep my child like imagination through out my life. I called it my own little world. 

I imagine a different world going on around us and existing secretly with the rest of reality. For the longest time, I had the assumption that I was the only one who lived half of my life within my own mind. I believed this because everyone has always been fascinated by the things that I imagine around me. "Teresa," they would say "I would love to get in your head and see what goes on in there!"

I told one of my friends while in church one day that it would be interesting to see what would happen if monkeys were released in the cathedral while mass was going on. I know, great thing to be thinking when I was suppose to be paying attention to worship! She thought I was crazy (as she giggled to herself) when I told her how the monkeys would love to swing on the chandlers hanging about the church. At the very least it would wake up the people just going through the motions or are dozing off in the back row. 

I have always shared my inner world with the people around me, yet no one has ever mentioned the world going on within their mind. Granted, I have a very unusual flow of thoughts, but I was unaware that other people also lived within their own minds. They just never talk about it. This is the world that you use to create ideas; as crazy as monkeys swinging from chandlers to as simple as coming up with a way to decorate a room in your house. Every idea springs from your inner world. Your world influences what you do, what you say and how you perceive the world around you. But no one talks about it. They are afraid to share these ideas and perceptions with the rest us because they are scared of what the world may think about them or what people will say. 

I want to change all of that. I want to show people that there is nothing wrong with showing the crazy ideas that go on in your mind. I want to show them how my mind work and that these world are nothing to be ashamed of. They are what makes us unique. As we grow up, we begin to lose the imagination that drove us to be who we are today. It goes away slowly so we do not realize what we are losing. We begin to conform to the ways of the rest of the world. 

Have you ever watched a flock of pidgins fly? We are like a flock of pidgins who move as one. They follow blindly toward the end of their journey because when one pidgin turns the rest follow thinking their is a danger that is being avoided by following the group.Whether it is the right way to go or not we follow because if we don't then something "bad" could happen. We never realize where we are going or what we are missed out on until we come to the end. We realize that life could have been so different if we had simply flown on our own and flew to the ends of the earth. 

Think about it, what did you do today? You got up, brushed your teeth and drove to work or school. You sat at a desk and worked, ate lunch and continued working. When the time comes you get back in your car and drive home. Then you are watching tv or get on the computer (and read my blog ;D) Then you set your alarm clock and go to bed, only to wake up the next morning and do it all over again. 

What is wrong with thinking on your own accord? What is wrong if we break the cookie cutter world that we live in and become our own thinkers, our own decision maker? What if you didn't go to work? What if you just went to the airport and hopped on the next flight to that one place you have always wanted to go. Who cares if you don't have money, there is always a way. You just have to go. But know you have to go to work because what will people think if you broke your day to day existence. 

I refuse to blindly. I refuse to follow and conform to this world. I want to be my own bird and be free to choose where I go and who I become. Maybe if I go on my own away from the flock others will follow and create new paths of their very own. Be like the children who are free to explore and think about the world without rules absolutes. They questions the world around them and in questioning the absolutes they find truth. The world was flat until one man questioned the absolutes the rest of the world blindly followed and realized that our world was much different that what we conformed it to be.

What about you? Will you follow the flock? Will you go back the child like mind you lost so long ago? What will you decide to do with in your world that existed between your ears? And how will you let it inspire your life?

Summer of Fun

This summer was amazing!! I spent the whole summer in San Angelo, Texas. Luckily, I was able to have an internship at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts as a museum educator. It was such a wonderful experience. Not only was I able to play with kids all summer but I was able to get a real look at what museum life is like. Megan DiRienzo and Rebekah Coleman (Bekah) were amazing mentors and they really opened my eyes to new ideas and ways of thinking. Bekah taught me so much this summer and had such a passion for teaching these kids.   Katie was my fellow intern and it turned out she was pretty much my twin. We even looked alike and the kids got us mixed up quite a bit. I don't know what I would have done without her this summer. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and we worked great as a team. Katie is an art history major at Baylor University and it was wonderful to be able to work side by side with her. It is inspiring to work with such wonderful women all summer!

I will have to say working with kids can be tiring but I learned so much and actually enjoyed teaching (who knew!) These children were sponges for knowledge. I spent one morning talking to the 7-9 year old class about animals and how artists are inspired by nature and they couldn't stop asking questions. I spent an hour teaching them and we didn't even get through all of the information we needed to cover. I worked with kids from ages 3 all the way up to high-schoolers and enjoyed all the age groups. It was really interesting trying to come up with projects for all the different age groups. We had to learn how to think on our feet and adapt to every situation imaginable.

The whole experience really opened my eyes to how amazing a child's imagination really is. They helped inspire many of the new ideas I have for this up coming semester and my senior show. I really hate that schools are cutting back on their art and music programs. These kids have amazing talent and it makes me sad that they do not have very many chances to explore that side of their mind. I know a lot of people do not appreciate or understand the reason behind children learning the arts. It is not the arts themselves that are important, it is the imagination that is needed to preform the arts. Imagination is what this society needs. Albert Einstein himself said, "I'm enough of an artist to draw freely on my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world." Someone once dreamed about a time when all the people of the globe could share information instantly. This was thought of long before the internet ever came about. The sky is no longer the limit. Only the power of our imagination is limited. As we get older we lose that thirst for imagination. We are so clouded by facts and absolutes that we are unable to get past what we know and believe. Children are naturally creative and if we don't help them expand that ability then how will ever be able to expand our knowledge of the world? Knowledge is learning about what we already know, art is about imagining what is possible.

I also got to spend all summer with my fiance, which was a blessing. He is a student at Angelo State University and works at the Alumni Center doing everything imaginable from advertising to planning events and creating every graphic imaginable. He also enjoys being a night time photographer. I also had the chance to work on some art work this summer when I wasn't working. The painting above is acrylic on canvas. I did this painting to helping AJ out with some of his advertisements and invitations for an upcoming event. It will also be up for auction at the Angelo State University Alumni Center this Fall.

This summer was definitely a blast and while having two overactive imaginations in the same town can be dangerous: mixing two artists for a summer can also be fun. Especially when we get bored...

Note: the only things in these pictures that is altered in Photoshop is the added light!

Welcome to My World

Welcome to the mixed up world that are my thoughts! Because this is the first entry in my blog, here is a quick introduction to who I am and what makes me tick...


To understand my life you first need to meet the people around me. I am engaged to AJ Lopez III and am very excited to spend the rest of my life with him (cue the "Awwww"). We will be getting married sometime in 2014. And we have kids (well sort of)! I own four goofy rats who inspire me every day. They always remind me that life is short so you should enjoy yourself. They also inspire me to keep my room clean because everything I leave on the floor will ether end up in their cage or have holes chewed in it.

I am a student at Midwestern State University getting my bachelors degree in fine arts. And for those of you who don't know where Wichita Falls is...


While the Falls is a smaller city, I have really enjoyed my time here. Midwestern State is a great place with amazing teacher. Almost all of the visiting artists who have come to campus have claimed it is a gem hidden from the rest of the world, and they are surprised at the work that comes from our freshman classes let alone the upper class work.

I am currently working towards graduation in December 2014 and the Senior Exhibition I will put on that month. I have chosen Ceramics as my major studio and Printmaking as my minor and still feel like I still have so much learn.

Most of my work (as of right now) will be based on the ever changing thoughts that go through people's minds. I have found that everyone has a world going on in their own head. These world influence how we perceive the real world and they even influence how we react to the real world. No one ever talks about what goes on in their minds. It is like we are ashamed or embarrassed to share our imaginations to the world.

So that is what I intend to do! My art work is an extension of who I am, what I believe in and how I look at the world around me. I am not ashamed of who I am, even if my thoughts are very different from the rest of the world. I am hoping that through seeing my artwork it will inspire others to have dreams and ideas of their own.


This blog is to further explain how my mind work and give you a more in depth look into how and why I love to do the work that I do. I hope you enjoy your time here. And if not then at least you will have a look at my own enjoyment, the wonderful world of Art!!