Nothing Is Sound

I wake up this morning and groan. Why? because I am coming down with a sickness, the kind of thing that lingers in the upper back pallete of your throat. It bugs me. Nothing is sound anymore except for the fact that I went to the very first concert of my entire life......Switchfoot!

They are a truly unique rock band with an intense longing for meaning, something I search for in the music I listen to. Their concert was gnarly! Thought I'd throw in a California surf word. It wasn't just great because it was my first rock concert I've ever been to, but because their concert was absolutely bodacious. The lead singer had a lot of presence. He jumped up on the drummers platform, rocked out on the bass drum, almost knocking it over, and then jumped back down. He also got into the crowd and sang. Yeah...wow...
Our crowd was tremendous. The sheer decible noise was intense, louder then our football games by far. The kind of screams that you can feel in the pit of your stomach and then it got louder something I didn't think was possible. The whole experience was amazing and I diffently am going to have to listen to more of their music because my friend CJ got me interested in their stuff and now that I heard it first hand I'm psyched.

My good friend Nate might like to know that Switchfoot is coming to Brisbane Oct. 3rd. He should go and convert some 'lost souls' at the concert. Too bad I have no way of 'contacting' him... *UT04 2AM* if(sleep==true) return sorry; else run fragBySteve;

The world as my palette

In my life I never would've thought I'd be a published artist, ever! Now I have been published twice and the second time my work will travel the world round. This drawing I completed on YouDraw is part of a collection of 3 posters of two thousand drawings each, to celebrate the milestones of one hundred, two hundred and three hundred thousand drawings posted on Youdraw.

My drawing of Edvard Munch's Madonna (Which by the way was stolen alone with The Scream, neither of which has been recovered.) is in the third YouDraw Poster.













I included that picture just to show the immensity of all the drawings. If you can find my drawing in there kudos to you. Click here to see a larger view of rows 21 through 24. My drawing is on row 24, thirty drawings over.

Edit: Someone later asked what was the other piece I had published. Here it is. (If you Google Steven Held this is also the first link you get :-)

Wallazamuo

Isn't nature awesome!? This spectacular waterfall peeks out from the lush forest after about a three mile hike in the wonderful state of Minnesota. I was there for my cousin Erin's wedding in August. Here my brother and I stand next to the two love-birds. Awwww...

Seeing that no one who reads my blog knows my cousin, I'll skip over the whole wedding and get to the great waterfall. So without further I do's, I mean ado, let me tell you about The Great Waterfall Expedition.

The morning after the wedding everyone gathered at a national park somewhere on the outskirts of Minneapolis for the reception. Long picnic tables of food glistened in the sun. After gorging ourselves my cousin Erin told us of a great waterfall called Wallazamuo. I just made that name up but it was something similiar. She pointed to the trail.

A group of about five decided to go. We trudged through the mud and cut through thick overhanging trees. After traversing up a mountain side, crunching the twigs below our feet, we saw a clearing ahead. A small creek had carved out a shallow pool. My cousin Paul was the first to jump in. He took off his shirt and made a face with his belly to Yoshi, a Japanese girl.

"Gross!" She had the look of upmost horror on her face.

"What you don't like my fat American belly? Do ya hear that Pudgy, she doesn't like you? She looked at him quizzically until Paul snickered. "I'm going to throw you into the creek, unless you say you like Mr. Pudgy." She obviously doesn't know my cousin because she didn't move until it was too late and well the rest is comical.

Hmmm...it seems I have deleted those pictures of Yoshi being thrown into the creek. Dang... Just imagine a 90lb Japanese girl being tossed by Paul into the creek screaming and afterwards placing a kick into the Achilles Heel of manlihood. The two of them later hit it off. My cousin is a character, he always makes me laugh.

After Paul recovered and Yoshi dried off, we set off for the waterfall. I could hear the water but the thick forest shielded the waterfall from our view. Then around another bend I saw Wallazamuo Falls or whatever it's called.
I love how the light shines down in this picture.


Then we climbed up and behind the waterfall. This is a great experience. The roar of the water pounding the rocks throwing up mist that tickled my skin as I watched the colors dance off the sparkling water. I could have stayed behind that waterfall forever, it was that beautiful.

My Sentiments

I've wanted to post about Hurricane Katrina, give my sentiments, pray for the people there, but I thought I couldn't offer anything of great importance in my blog. However, the more I think about it the more I believe my sentiments can effect people a lot more than I originally thought. The other day I overhead a college student (probably a freshmen) ask what was Hurricane Katrina! Granted the person lives in Wyoming, has probably never seen the ocean, let alone even been outside the 100 mile radius of their birthplace and if they have a television it is most likely permanently tuned to MTV. For this I can't blame them. Just as I can't blame that bird nesting in the tree outside my window. I really cannot blame stupidity or ignorance but I would like to. I would like to shake some sense into them, peel back their eyelids and force them to see what's going on in the world but I can't because I'm a nice guy and even if I were they probably wouldn't care.

This attitude reminds me much of the message from the novel Brave New World. In the novel the people used a drug called soma. This gave them instant gratification and they didn't care about what was going on in the world. We might not take Soma but we surely don't care what is going on the world. The United States is in a war and people go about their lives normally, Hurricane Katrina devastates millions and most go frolicking about their lives without a thought of what's going on. Maybe it's a good thing, a sort of a semi-retarded coma state. Why care about the world if it doesn't effect you?

I'm just as guilty, though not in stupidity but in ignorance. I sit here with a nice computer glowing, the sun shining through the window, birds chirping while those effected by Katrina are without. Even more ignorant on my part is that I went to Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver last week. I went with a group of friends and we were flipped, twisted, spun around and sprayed with water all while laughing about it. So call me a hypocrite if you will. I'm not saying we should all become depressed and not carry on with our lives. I'm just saying we need to reflect upon what is happening in the world and lives of others whether or not they directly effect us. A Haiku that sums this point up beautifully.

When my house blew down
there was nothing left to see
but the rising sun

That's the outlook on life we all need. Let us all appreciate what we have and to give what we can to those in need.

Black Bird Singing in the Dead of Night

My cousin Mark received the Black Crowe drawing I completed for him for his birthday a few of months ago. I had forgotten to take a final picture of it and I asked him if he would send me one. I really like the picture he just sent me. His face is reflected back in the glass glare of the drawing and he really looks as if he is in a reverie. Mark called me when he received the drawing and was ecstatic!!! He complimented me over and over again. I was so happy he liked it because when he first asked me to draw a Black Crowe drawing I had no clue what to do.

He asked me to make a drawing of the lead singer if I could. I thought I would personify a black crow as the lead singer instead.

One of my many sketches (From this sketch I made the final piece)


My drawings begin to take form








For those of you unfamiliar with my cousin Mark, he was in a car accident eight years ago which left him mostly paralyzed. He is in a wheel chair but can manage to walk short distances with extreme effort. When he was younger he played the violin and used to call me Baby Steven, actually he still calls me that. He was in a coma for 2 years before coming out of it right before they nearly pulled the plug on him. He still is very knowledgable, writes very well and has a quick wit. He is a riot to take into a mall because he will hoot and holler at all the girls. He loves the Black Crowes, his ultimate favorite Rock-n-Roll band..

Going Buff to Celebrate 100

I've passed the threshold of ONE HUNDRED drawings on the YouDraw website!!! I am totally elated!!!!!!!!! I had to make a drawing that would represent everything that I have taken in and learned while drawing on this miniscule drawing pad. I chose two represent myself but to take aspects from two other artists that I admire. In this piece I have become Adam from Michelangelo's The creation of Adam. The left panels of the piece are left semi-unfinished as if I'm still in the process of creating or drawing my own self. This idea was taken from a charcoal drawing by Kathé Kollwitz entitled Self Portrait.

Obviously I'm in the buff in this piece. I have already received a few comments by unscrupulous idiots on this drawing that don't understand the message of my piece. A drawing with nudity is simply a drawing of God's greatest image, that of man. Nudity isn't the focus of my piece and that should be obvious since it does not have a very significant position. I will not ruin art by plastering a barrier over anything anyone considers cliche. Michelangelo didn't do it nor will I. As with any artwork depicting nudity it's the beauty of the human figure that is on display and nothing else. Clothing often becomes distracting and in a few years time will become obsolete. Imagine if Michelangelo was forced by the leaders of his day to put loin cloths over his figures because they deemed his figures as unholy and pagan. It strikes me as funny that today we still view nudity with the same attitude as in Michelangelo's day. Why? Haven't we progressed as a culture yet? There is as much a difference between nudity and pornography as an apple and orange. But I'd like to know your opinions. Even though I have lead you to the correct way of thinking I imagine there must be someone that would challenge it. So bring it on tightie whitie.

A few drawings before I reached my one hundreth mark.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Blogging

This is a long and philosophical post. Let me apologize now.

Life Changing

So I've been blogging for quite some time now. It has taken over a large chunk of my life and I give all the credit to my friends CJ and Nathaniel for getting me started. I always thought keeping a journal would be an extraordinary thing, but something I would never have time for. Now here I am keeping one and exposing it to the world.

Exposing is the key word. People really show themselves in blogs, they can't help but do so. They tell us about themselves, both in what they write, and what they don't write.

Wondering if someone is listening...

Sometimes I write stuff that seems inconsequential to me and I am pleasantly surprised by the quantity of comments I get. Sometimes I write stuff I believe is rather good, that I value and I get... nothing back. That's quite painful, though I may not show it.

It has lead me to believe how important it is to leave comments on other blogs. Just that little extra effort to respond to another blog has introduced me to some really great people and from their blogs I have discovered many exciting new things such as getting inspired to take pictures and signing up for Flickr to finding a nifty free 3D animation software called Blender.

An unfinished book

One definition of love is: to be willing to educate the other about who you really are. Deliberately or not, that's what's happening in blogs. And no, I'm not saying all we need is love. I am standing up for the extraordinary value of people sharing their experiences. I really enjoy reading about other peoples' lives. For me reading about someone I don't even know is like reading a story, but in this case they are real people and it's a collection of stories from their lives that will take you on a never ending rollercoaster of climaxes. Some bloggers don't reveal their personal lives, but through their writing style and of what they post about you still get to know them far better than you ever would know them in the flesh. Take for example my friend CJ. From his blog he seems like a very knowledgable person but in real life:

Haha :-) I'm just kidding CJ! Maybe that's Mr. Mosty!?! I can never distinguish between the two of you.

My true nature

I reveal a lot about myself at the Sea of Steve and it has taken me a while to find out what I'm actually all about and how much of me I will reveal (Which is a lot considering any stalker can look at my google map and find where my hometown is :-O). This blog reveals so much about me that it often scares me.

In the real world I'm not so revealing. I'm a quiet person that many don't really know because I'm not the typical college student that parties, drinks, or takes part in the R rated sorts of things. It's always been my sort of nature. So be glad that you get to know me here and for those of you that I know outside of this blog, you must be a wonderful person because I choose my friends carefully.

There's something to be said for vulnerability

Please don't read this as an admonishment to post more comments to my blog or anyone else's (though don't let me stop you). For me, there is great value in recording my thoughts for myself, whether or not anyone else reads them. I'd just like to share that though this blogging may look easy, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes I worry myself with what people might think about me when I write a post or even when I leave a comment on someone else's blog. I could worry myself right now with what you may think of this entry. ("Good gracious, what's gotten into Steve? Why can't he get back to good, solid, unphilosophical posts with more pictures?")

If that angst is the "agony" part of being vulnerable, there is also the "ecstasy" side. I've been emailing a fellow blogger for quite some time now. From the moment we started emailing it was a great, touching conversation that I look forward to each day. And in those moments I realise the huge value of taking risks and saying what I think in here - because we only met because of our blogs, and we only connected with the openness that we did because of it. (You know who you are and I thank you)

Next week, I'm off to college and I hope that I will be able to continue this blog there. If my posts become shorter and come further apart, let me know! Give me a swift kick in the butt by commenting and tell me you want to hear from me. I may not have much of anything interesting to post about but surely I can find something.

Take a look back at the history of my blogging career:
My first blog on MSN Spaces. I didn't like MSN Spaces. Everything was too concrete, nothing could be changed. I eventually moved to Blogger

A look at the old www.seaofsteve.blogspot.com Back then this site was entitled "No Answers.......Just Better Questions" until I realized that title had nothing to do with my posting style and I reverted back to "Sea of Steve." (Look at how bland my site used to be before I learned how to change things using HTML)

And voilà you're now looking at the current "Sea of Steve" with much better graphics. I hope you enjoy and.....

Thanks to all my readers!