This book is a journal written by the wife of a newlywed american
couple who moved to Iraq in the 1950's. She writes about all her
experiences living in this unfamiliar culture... about her
relationships with the Muslim women, trying to adapt to being a new
wife, cultural mistakes she makes along the way, etc.
It's honest, entertaining, informative and very well written. I highly
recommend it to anyone who has visited or plans to visit that part of
the world!
Fantastic read.
ART SHOW!!!!LAURIE ANNE JOHNSON and KATIE CALHOUNAUGUST 20th, 2009Birmingham, Alabama
"Stir the stagnant waters of my soul, merge me with your river which brings life. I don't have all the right words to say that will provoke you to want me anymore than you already do. So wont you come, come like you promised, pour out your Spirit, pour out your Spirit."I just want to share this song with everyone... it is awesome... enjoy...
-Amber Brooks
Hello!
I wanted to let all of yall know that I have new paintings up!!
I had such a great response to “Red Birds 1” that I decided to make it into a series... so now we have “Red Birds 2” and “Red Birds 3”!!!
To see the titles and sizes of the paintings click here.
YES, all my paintings are FOR SALE! :) Contact me for more information on any painting.
I hope yall enjoy!!
I am back in Sweet Home Alabama! I had the most incredible time traveling Europe and really enjoyed spending my last semester of college in Florence.
I am now a graduate of Auburn University with a Bachelor of Art degree! (War Eagle!) I am now working part time and painting the rest of the time. It feels so good to be back in my studio!
Making art in Italy was a really good experience for me. It was a much needed break in my art education experience. I was able to pretty much start over without having expectations from professors who knew how I have painted for the past 4 years. It was like a breath of fresh air!
I experimented a lot in my paintings. I was limited in my resources and decided to take advantage of those limitations and really push the materials I did have. Mixed media and vivid colors ended up being a strong theme in my paintings.
All in all, my time in Italy was a fresh way of looking and painting for me. I am very excited to apply what I discovered in Italy to my paintings now that I am home!
I took a quick weekend trip to Barcelona! The first night I went to see the Magic Fountain (as we called it) and it was amazing!!!! I think it was my favorite part of Barcelona... The fountain is HUGE and has lights that change the colors of the water and the fountain is timed to music... it is so awesome. If you are ever in Barcelona you MUST go to the fountain at night... I could have sat there and watched it all night.
We took a bus tour around Barcelona and saw pretty much all of the city. It was a good way to see the city when you do not have that much time. Along the way I saw the most beautiful wall with its paint pealing and some amateur graffiti on it.. it was art within itself. It was quite a treat to see!
We came across an older man sitting in the park, set up with his chess board as if he was challenging anyone who was brave enough to try and defeat him. One of my friends did challenge him... and to no surprise, he won.
Barcelona is a nice city. I hope to make it back to Spain again one day!
I have some exciting news!
I had an art show in Florence! The art students in the Advanced courses had the opportunity to create artwork for an exhibition called “Art ‘n Food” that was held at a local restaurant in Florence called Gonzo. It was very exciting to know that a piece of my art was selected to be in a show in Italy! The show will be up for about a month longer.
My painting “Seeds” is 80 cm x 80 cm and my statement is below.....
My painting is inspired by the idea of the source of life. For me the source of life is clearly stated in Matthew 26:6 which says, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?". This verse talks about the source of life in two different aspects. The first one is that God provides life for us and for the birds. The other idea is that He sustains that life with food. The seed represents the life that has been provided for us by God and also represents the origin of food. I am intrigued by the idea that not only humans eat from the seed but the birds use the seed as their life source as well. I believe that much care and thought goes into providing food in order to have life. I express this idea in my creative process which is very elaborate, slow and thoughtful. In these paintings I express my personal beliefs about the relationship between humans, nature and the supernatural through the process of creating.
Yes, it is true! My parents traveled all the way from Alabama to see me in Italy! It was so good to finally be able to show my parents where I have been living for the last 3 months! We had such a good time together.
I joined my parents in taking an Italian cooking class! It was so much fun! We all learned a lot that we did not know before. We had a great teacher/chef named Roberto. Now I feel like I have a few cooking tricks up my sleeve... but I guess we will see!
We also went to the Chianti Region of Italy to Castello del Trebbio, a family run castle. They produce and bottle their own wine and olive oil. The family actually lives in the castle and we got to take a tour of where they live and taste their wine and olive oil. I loved the way it was decorated. It was an old beautiful castle but it was decorated with contemporary furnishings. There were great big sofas and several beautiful oriental style rugs. Although it was a big castle it still had a cozy and homey feeling. I loved it. The castle sits in between the Tuscan hills and has the most breathtaking views.
Along with the castle came the game keeper... and he was absolutely adorable. He was dressed in his uniform and has been working at the castle as the game keeper everyday for over 50 years... well, he took 10 days off of work for his honeymoon! He is 81 years old now and when you look at him and see his smile stretch across his wrinkled skin, you almost wonder if every one of those wrinkles has a story to tell. I feel honored to have met him. I don’t even know his name but he was precious.
Well, at first, I was a little worried about my trip to Ireland.. because it was freezing and raining!!! As I was walking through the cold rain, I said over and over to myself that I will never live somewhere cold and rainy!! a.k.a. Ireland! BUT then we had the most wonderful weather the very next day.... it was still cold and windy but the sun was shining and it was absolutely gorgeous.. I could not have asked the Lord for a more beautiful day!
We took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher and it was so much fun! We had a wonderful guide and saw some of the most beautiful landscapes throughout the countryside. It was an artists dream... well at least for me it was.....
Ireland is a very colorful country.. and the grass is so green!!! I loved the buildings. They are all very colorful and when I looked over the city, it looked like a painters palette. It was almost like it was God’s palette that he used to paint the beautiful rainbow we saw.... It was amazing.
Germany... I don’t even know where to start!
I had the most wonderful time in Germany!! I felt like I was home.. and it was probably because i was staying in the german countryside and it looked a lot like home to me but mainly because I stayed with an incredible German family!! The sweet family took us into their home in the breathtaking countryside. The Village we stayed in is about an hour and a half outside of Berlin.
Our 6 days there were packed with trips to Hannover, Berlin, and exploring the countryside. I relearned a lot of history that I have forgotten over the years. We went and walked along part of the Berlin Wall that separated West Berlin from East Berlin. When the wall was taken down, artists came and used the parts that were still up as their canvas. The wall now tells stories about what the wall stood for, how people felt when they were stuck on one side of the wall and how they feel now that it is down. It was an amazing site for me to see.
One day while exploring the countryside, this older man yelled “Hallo!” along with other German words that we did not know. He had the biggest grin on his face and he motioned for us to come over. He asked if we spoke German (Well, we think) and we said no... but that did not stop him. We had no clue what was coming out of his mouth but we knew he was telling us a story and he wanted to show us something and we knew it had something to do with hunting because he made a shooting motion and wanted us to follow him. So, we did! He took us to the back of his house into this other little house that was filled with all of the game he has shot! All I could think about while I was in there was, “My brothers and dad would love this!” This cute german man told us stories about all the different animals in his little house and then took us to the main house and showed us more and told us more stories. Keep in mind, he spoke zero English and we understand only a few german words, but it was so awesome. I felt like I knew every word he was saying. I loved it.
Germany was an incredible country and I am happy to say that I have another trip planned before I leave to go home to the USA. I am very excited!
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