**i am a very lazy blogger**
i have decided to make art and art therapy a more important part of my life. in fact, it sustains me, and i need it. i suffer from severe and chronic depression, OCD and borderline personality disorder. art is my best therapy, as is going out to nature. i want to share my journals and experiences making them in the hopes that i can inspire at least one person to treat their own mental health to some kind of art. i will be working on adding as much as i can while trying not to completely neglect my family...thanks for coming and check back soon!
THE BASICS.......
name: CHRISTINE ECHELBARGER
location: southeastern USA
dream: be able to concentrate on art and creating all day & all night
reality: husband and 2 kids (14 and 7)
grind: after losing his job at ford, we relocated 800+ miles south, where i promised i would never live, to be near family. he's now a massage therapist working with a chiropractor and at a spa. he's very good! i stay home and try to be a good parent
education: one statistics class away from a dual degree in psychology and art therapy from bowling green state university, ohio
art background: i have loved and learned about art since i could hold a crayon. my dad is an artist/photographer and taught me basics and love for art/vision, my parents sent my brother and i to many summer community art classes taught by really great people (there i learned calligraphy, cartooning, woodcarving, sewing, drawing, photography, and painting).
i can't remember life without glue, scissors, paint and pencils! through grade and high school, i was asked to re-scribe the school constitution, create program covers/signs/newsletters, and made our high school graduation banner/buttons. college courses included acrylics, life drawing, jewelry, enameling, fiber arts, ceramics and art history. i was also commissioned with a friend to paint character and original wall-murals inside 3 kindercare centers.
mental background: i will at some point write my history. it's too daunting of a task right now...
GOAL
ART IS MY PASSION AND MY THERAPY
MORE PERSONAL JUNK FOR YOU VOYEURISTIC TYPES....
* love everything nature and wildlife
* avid junk collector - see my post on collections.
* extreme homebody and night person, love overcast and rainy, cool days.
* take way too many pictures, and make drawings
* mandate family meals, try to mandate cleanliness, and demand lots of play/enjoy-life time with the kids.
* favorite reading: anything to do with art, art-journaling, paper arts, altered books, anything psychologically educational, like to read others' blogs, their lists and their scrapbooks and journals. recently turned on to audio books and my favorite one: HGWells War of the Worlds
* favorite colors: browns, olives and baby or intense indigo blues, lavendar/blue, intense black
* favorite meal: porterhouse steak, baked potato w sea salt crust, asparagus
choice of beverage: icewater all day. no coffee, ever
* favorite snacks: pop secret home style, hersheys milk chocolate (w jif p.butter), krogers apple, black cherry or blackberry pie (only at half-off), and lo, the ultimate--- breyers all natural vanilla (black box) ....preferably with a thick, fresh waffle....
* favorite sport to do: used to swim, bike and karate
* favorite outfit: smooth, cool cotton t-shirt and lounge pants, no shoes
* tv shows: recently ditched cable for netflix, love house, doctor who, top chef, all shows forensically oriented, all kinds of documentaries, iron chef (japan), anything on discovery, ID, nat geo, or history channels, and sad to admit, some reality crap TV. i love psychology, and space or animal documentaries, and watch how it's made and other related shows as well.
* favorite metal: stainless steel, favorite rock: smooth round rocks from a maine shore, any smooth rocks with deep colors or striation, favorite wood: smooth, white or deep colored and hand waxed, love love love exotics - despise rainforest destruction though
* favorite crayon: periwinkle
* cake: absolutely white with sugary white frosting (sometimes my milk chocolate with chocolate frosting from scratch).
* nuts: yes.....hazelnuts, followed by cashews and almonds (looove jordan almonds)
* flowers: white daisies and blue/purple hydrangeas, wisteria, my baba's wildflower/weed bouquets from her garden.
* favorite way to waste time: magazines, collage, cut and paste, drawing......uh, doing this
