A True Art Student and a True Strawberry

I have done it. I have crossed the crucial step to become a true art student: the infamous "all-nighter" at the College of Design Building. It is a graphite drawing of a skeleton leaning forward over the back of a chair. I spent over three hours just on the shading of the skull, and I don't even want to think about how long theh rib cage took me. Mom is probably thinking I need to work faster, but I am actually the second person done in the class, and our professor says he usually spends 30 hours on a drawing and he wants these pieces to be magnificient since he gave us an extra day.

Technically the project isn't due until Tuesday, but since the studio is only available at night because of day classes, the still life/lighting changes each time someone sets it up, and I really do not want to spend another weekend in a dark, cold studio, I decided I was going to finish it even if it meant no sleep! So at 7:00 a.m. this morning, I happily closed my art box, went to breakfast with another BPMI-er who held through the night with me, and attended my 8:00 class before a quick nap and then off to my next classes- and I did it without any caffeine! Although I feel a little dazed right now, I'm holding up fairly well with the sweet dream of a warm bed to get me through more FHP interviews.

Today in Plants and People (the best class ever) I learned that a strawberry isn't really a fruit. Well, the little cream "seeds" on the outside are actually the fruits, and the red, fleshy part is a modified recepticle. Also, fruits are modified leaves- I'd heard this before but never really caught on to the meaning. Exampgle: the common grean bean's ancestor started out with a broad leaf, lamina, with reproductive structures along the underside of the leaf along the edges, or margins, similar to a fern with the spores on the underside of the leaves. Eventually though natural selection, it began to infold in on itself to protect the regions of reproduction from outside conditions and thus we have this modern day legume with the ovules and the underside part of the lamina on the inside and the upperside part of the lamina on the outside. There is so much cool stuff that I'm learning in this class, and I could share more, but you may not be as excited about it as I am. Yes, I probably sound really nerdy right now, but hey, it gives me something to think about when I'm drawing.

Have a good weekend. January is almost over! Whoo hoo