Category: Uncategorized

The beginning of a snow storm, From outside my dorm window

Winter is a beautiful time of year but burrrrrrrrr……. The white stuff has fallen a couple of times already and I continually find myself hating it more and more. Not so much the snow but the agonizing, bitter, freezing wind. Then it is a thing like this that will change my mind. I happened to stumble upon this beautiful site of the sun shining throught the limbs of a tree early in the morning. The tree is one in front of the Fine Arts building, refracting iridescent snow and light.

Heaven woven quilt

Isn’t that beautiful? I couldn’t believe it. I would’ve missed this had I not gone in early to work on an art project and brought my camera to take pictures of my piece. When I saw this tree, I almost forgot I had my camera with me. I just stared for ages and I remember saying to myself, “Aww dang I wish I had my camera.” Then it dawned on me that I did have it, although it took forever to unbundle myself to get to it. I’m thankful I did.

If it must be cold at least God still has a hand in the creation of beauty for us all to behold. Let us all be thankful for everything we are given and able to behold. Remember to see the beauty in everything we would otherwise miss.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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 :-)

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.

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..

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!