God bless Guatemala

In the beautiful mountains of Quetzaltenango is a little school, full of bright young minds. For 9 days, 14 students and 2 leaders from Purdue Christian Campus House went to teach in Colegio Mark, a private K-9 school in the mountains of Guatemala. For 5 days, we taught drama, music, watch movies, and had recess but the main focus of the week was teaching English. This unique school gets many visitors a year; some bring new fascinating subjects for the school to try. Our subject was simple yet very difficult: teaching English to all students K-9 and giving teachers methods to teach with afterwards as well.

Introducing the Birdcage: A New Era of Art

The Birdcage is my latest obsession, figuratively speaking. As it relates to faith, the birdcage may seem like an obvious metaphor. But the birdcage itself, when you look at it, has something so beautiful about it. As well as a sense of imprisonment. The sin that God has saved me from and the healing He is doing now, that is my birdcage. The process is beautiful, although the sin was not. My story is beautiful, even though I didn't think so when I was still inside the cage. It's amazing to see how God uses our little stories to bring His Story together.

With that said, I told you I'd be uploading some artwork from this year. Here's the final product from my Design II class. We were to create a 3D object out of one 28x40 sheet of bristol (cardstock) paper; no glue, no cutting away from it. Here the final product:









For another project, titled Inside the Box, we were to build a white box with a 1.5-inch depth and imply at least 1 foot of space within it. Here's what I did:



Then, my real passion is creating things on my own.



However, I don't have as much time as I'd like to do things on my own. But I'll be working more on that these next few months.

Until we meet again!
Jess ♥

Volunteer Volunteer Coordinator

It began with a phone call...

I had applied to be a Volunteer Coordinator at the Lafayette Transitional Housing Center. It's a place for the homeless to go to get resources to get back on their feet, including a clothing donation room, food pantry, computers, phone & mail service, showers & day sleeping rooms. The job of volunteer coordinator consisted of becoming the new contact for free-will volunteers at LTHC (as opposed to community service volunteers, which is court-ordered).

I received a phone call, which turned into an interview, which became a job! :D Praise God!! I didn't know what to expect of this job, but on the interview I told them that I would help them recreate their volunteer system and anything else they needed me to do. That was so crazy to me, but I do believe that God wanted me to have this job. What I wanted was to work in non-profit AND a paycheck!

Little did I know that God had other plans for me. The last week of winter break consisted of many phone calls, some to Purdue's financial aid office for both work-study funds and to verify my parent's tuition loan. God's plan came into view when the tuition loan went through before the work-study funds did. Inadvertently, because I had tuition fully paid for, I was no longer eligible for work-study. So my position as Volunteer Coordinator immediately became Volunteer Volunteer Coordinator (as my boss would put it with a laugh).

At first, I was a little bummed (no paycheck) but I haven't volunteered to do anything in years. I'd been putting it off for so long that God had me volunteer unknowingly.

It's definitely a learning experience. Here I have been using my time as if it were my own! Ha! It definitely should belong to God so now I'm giving back.

My first day was the hardest but silently beautiful at the same time.

A man came in, said he was hurting and needed to get some food from the pantry. My supervisor told him that the pantry was closed for the day but would let him in this time. Since I'm learning what each volunteer position is about, my supervisor asked me to help him. I helped him shop for food for his family, as well as bagged his groceries. It broke my heart the whole time and I just wanted to help so much more. I understand now how it feels to volunteer and want to give your everything to one person, again and again. Because it happened again. And it would happen again. I wanted every person that walked in there to know that they're loved, by a God who knows their struggles, even if they don't understand the struggle. I wanted to give the little money I have to help.

God reveals Himself in so many people in so many ways. I'm blessed to have this volunteer job and I can't wait to share with you as I learn new things along the way.

Until we meet again!
Jess ♥

Finally, A Focus

I haven't found my calling in life...yet but I have discovered how to make these 2 art classes I'm taking more bearable AND get back into designing. For my last semester at Purdue, I am taking Drawing II and Design II. They can both be headaches if I let them, Design being the worst, but I gave myself a challenge this semester: I'm going to focus my artwork on God. Not just my artwork but much of my portfolio will be. I have been plagued with lack of "trying very hard to finish this darn thing" for a long time and I'm tired of it. I've avoided the creativity He gifted me with for far too long.

For my art classes, I have been incorporating Jesus into everything I can get my hands on. I have created a piece that shows my inner beauty in a world full of darkness and a birdcage piece [I'll explain later in another post]. Both have a connection to my faith. I'll be posting these soon so you can have a look!

And as for my graphic design writer's block? Here's how it started!

My main issue was....the design part. I've so afraid of even starting a design that if it was not good enough I won't get a job anywhere. Then it hit me. It doesn't matter how awesome or crappy my website looks, or how awesome or crappy my artwork looks. I will LITERALLY go wherever God leads me, be that Arkansas, New Mexico, or downtown Lafayette! Whatever the case, it's not possible for me to screw that up. I can't screw up His plan! So I woke up Sunday morning and thought "The Birdcage Unhinged" would be the new name of my blog! After years of my friends telling me that I was awesome at design & drawing, I let it get to my head, to the point where I was afraid to disappoint. Truth be told? Nobody cares what I make, except God, and I hope to glorify Him. Not glorify myself.

So most likely I will be using this birdcage idea for my portfolio and connecting it to my blog somehow. I hope to have my portfolio up and running by April (shooting for a high goal but we'll see!)

DESIGN SIDENOTE: Obviously I have not designed the blog yet, but fear not! I have a great design that will be up soon!

Until we meet again!
Jess ♥