Reflection

GOALS with ACU/TEACHING:

 

I do not see myself teaching anywhere else but ACU. I have found a great home with the faculty and staff. I feel encouraged to grow as a person and an artist at this school.

 

I would love to develop the design program more. I would really like for ACU to be a competitive place for design students to vie for spots to get his/her BFA in Design. The Experiential Learning course I took with the Adams’ Center was helpful in guiding my plan for a Capstone course for design students to meet before graduation. With my connections to UCLA’s Design Showcase West, I hope to have students having strong competitive entrees by Spring 2027.

 

Goals for Next Five Years (2023—2028):

1. 5 students that have come to ACU specifically for costume design

2. 1 Student that will be able to present their portfolios at Design Showcase West by spring 2027. (Design Showcase West is for seniors, this would mean the first group to be able to participate would be 2027, we are getting a costume design student this year, 2023)

3. Continue to have 1-2 shows a season designed by a student

4. Have the homecoming musical designed by a student

5. Have guest special effects makeup artist host a workshop

6. Solidify the new course developments:

   1. Patterning and Millinery

   2. Design with Non-Traditional Materials

   7. Learn how to do computer rendering

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Working Outside of ACU:

Designing costumes for outside projects: Matter of Time feature film, Dangerous Ones feature film, “Death” costume for Gates McFadden’s short film The Toll and others, have been opportunities for me to stay challenged and relatable in the design world for my students. If I am not taking jobs outside of academia, it is difficult for me to have advice to students on how to get the job and what it looks like to work in the “outside world”. I am grateful ACU is encouraging to take these projects, so that I can continue to stretch myself through working with new people/personalities, learning ever-changing industry technology and practices, and having external deadlines.

I have also had outside jobs I wasn’t chosen for, and those also provided learning experiences. One director wanted me to be able to get all of the costumes for a 1890 feature film for less than $2000 (including my pay and the costumes). I told him I didn’t have the scope to be able to achieve that. He ended up not going with me and doing it himself. Another job I applied for and interviewed for was for a Biblical streaming pitch and would be filmed where the series The Chosen was shot. I was later told by one of the producers, “The director said she loved you and wants to work one day together but she wants to go with someone who has rented costumes from Capernaum Studios and knows the inventory there.” These “rejections” are important for me to experience so that I see what the students will go through when they leave school. I can relate to them still on “rejections”. And I will say, each project I didn’t get was exactly the way it needed to go. Something else bigger came up or God was protecting me from a project in which I didn’t need to get involved. Which, goes back to not making any of this my identity, but just trusting in God with all of it.

 

FOR FURTHER GOALS/LIFE REFLECTIONS (if you are interested):

 

My husband, Jason, and I are big reflectors. Early in our marriage, we would go on dates and he would ask me, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" At first, this was actually a struggle for me because my entire life up to that point had felt more like walking along a path, suddenly there emerges a fork in the road, now, what do I do?" Then through prayer and fasting, God would lead me to one of the roads to take even though it had not been on my radar to go in that direction. Now, we still do that same practice but with a set of goals, a “target”, if you will. This portion of the equation of life was new to me. Now, we discuss what we want to have accomplished in the next 5 years and then as we head towards that goal, things shift as we follow God’s guidance in this path.

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The spring of 2018, I read the book The Road Back to You by Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile. I could not believe I was reading such an articulate explanation to how I operated, what my struggles were, and how to identify them so I could grow and get out of the box I was in. My box consisted of a very loud inner critical voice that began in my twenties. This inner critic spiraled me into bouts of depression. This critical voice could find anything wrong with me. And I listened. And I responded the exact way this voice (Satan’s lies) would want me to respond. I cried. I spoke these words aloud to myself while staring in the mirror. Then I cried some more. The Road Back to You defined this issue for me. By calling it out, it helped me see the signs. At this same time, I was reading The Road Back to You, I was reading Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. One of my favorite verses that I memorized as a child was 2 Corinthians 10:3—5 and I would say it often to myself…but I actually didn’t know how to put it in to practice until I read Joyce Meyer’s book. Through The Road Back to You, I learned to identify my inner critic and through Battlefield of the Mind, I learned how to fight back against that inner critique. And now, I wage war against the inner critic. It is not welcome. What used to be literal days and weeks, and years of spiral-listening to the lies is now seconds. The war is over before it even begins. I see the lie coming and I speak aloud the truth of who and what God says I am. Learning this has caused me to be very passionate about sharing my journey to our college students. This is why I have led so many chapels on this very topic. Jason and I are also teaching our kids to identify Satan’s lies and speak God’s truth over them. They already use the phrase, “I think you are believing a lie right now. What lie are you believing?” Praise Jesus they have this verbiage and power already! Jason and I often say we want our ceiling to be our kids’ floor. We want them to grow beyond what we are capable of teaching. We do this through leading by example. We are constantly growing and then sharing with them how we are growing, what God is teaching us. We want to continue to learn and push ourselves in the area of: faith, trusting in God, fighting Satan, creating art, story-telling through film and stage, and, most importantly, raising kids that love Jesus and love being loved by Him.

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Summer of 2020, we began our Airbnb business through a clear direction from the Lord. That has been going very well. We love the hospitality of it, the people we have met, the contractors we have been able to employ and build relationships with through our business. Doing anything with realty was not on our original “five-year-plan", but God directed us and we were listening and obedient.