#TBT...takin' it back to the Class of 1996

I think more than anything, the recent death of Chris has made me think back on the actual time frame that I knew him, which for me was mostly my high school years.  Chris dying brought back the memories of Amy dying...and all week I have had been having moments when I can remember specific memories and thoughts that I had back then...when one person passes I truly believe that you relive everyone you have ever lost all over again, and it is a very surreal feeling.  March is already a tough month, this is the birth and death month of John's mother, Lucy...so yeah, I have been a little bit inside of my own head all week.  I hope to emerge soon enough.

For my throw back Thursday photos on my social media pages yesterday I posted  images from my high school yearbooks. The first image shows the cover of my senior yearbook.  Like the cover suggests, this week I have been taking a 'second glance' and looking through this book from 1996, eighteen years ago.  I was eighteen then.  Some of my students are eighteen now.  I can't believe it.  Back then I did consider myself and artist, and as far as I know my classmates did, too. So I guess in many ways I am very much the same person as back then.   I took as many art classes as I could that year with Mrs. Calcutt, my favorite teacher.  

The picture to the right of the yearbook cover is the traditional senior class photo, I think we were supposed to be grouped in the shape of a '96'...kind of hard to tell and I can't remember.  You can see where Chris is in that photo, he is in color.  I am to his right with Kelly and Shelby, two of my cheer friends.  Not pictured is Amy German, she had already passed away when this photo was taken.

The picture to the far right shows some artwork I made for the yearbook.  They asked me to do a caricature of the senior class officers...I have never been that great at caricatures but looking back I guess the drawings look okay.  If nothing else, it was kind of fun to see the image there, I had forgotten that I drew it.  

So that was my mini-trip back to 1996.  I created a piece of art last night to kind of work through some things.  The main thing that I felt while I was making the piece was an overwhelming sense of love for the people in my life and a desire to spread t

From my IG @artinw_damuse...today's piece. was a bit of a a challenge because i wanted to stay somewhat within my theme for the month...but personally had to honor someone that passed, symbolized by this angel, welcoming him to the next, well...NEXT.


The colors are in my old high school colors, navy, columbia blue and white...and that's it. time to sleep. to my #ClassOf1996classmates, to my friends and family, to those that have passed that i try to honor daily and certainly to my amazing husband...just know how much i appreciate and love you, and that all of our lives are connected, even if it is a small connection. so feel that love and pass it on. 


#art #CED2014 #inspiration#angel #arthivemagazine

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