Anchors Painting

So here is a painting I did for an art project in school. But I was able to also do something that had some meaning for me. This is supposed to be Hope from my short story Anchors (Part 1, Part 2). We were supposed to use a specific color scheme, I choose the complementary colors blue and orange. I still don't know how I feel about the cloud reflections in the water.

On Death and Violence

I apologize, through a combination of circumstances I haven't posted on here for a couple of weeks. Opps. Here is a longish post.
Hmm. The title of this post sounds a little depressing but I don't think it will be too bad. My friends and I have recently been watching some western TV shows and movies, especially The Young Riders (which you can view for free on Hulu). They are all wearing guns, and always shooting them, and calling each other out. We thought it would be fun to buy ourselves some fake guns to play around with, keep them holstered on our hips and call each other out. That kind of good stuff. We did. It's been pretty entertaining.
Last night I watched The Amazing Spider-Man, complete with gun holstered on my hip sticking into me. Uncle Ben was killed with a gun. I felt overly conscious, maybe even dirty, for having such a play item. After all pistols are primarily for killing people.
A month or two ago I went with the same friends to go crawdad fishing. We waded through a shallow river and grabbed these little crustaceans right behind their claws (so they can't pinch you), throw them in a bucket of water, and then bring them home. Where we twisted off their tails and pulled out the guts and then threw them in a pot of boiling water where they then were cooked to death.
I am from the east coast. Where guns, hunting, and fishing are all uncommon. So I'm pretty sure this was the first time I had ever killed anything before. What was interesting though was that I really enjoyed splashing through the water grabbing these quick little creatures without getting pinched. The gutting and killing was a little unsavory, but I figured if I hunted them, it was my duty to follow through with the rest of it.
So to connect these two... why is it fun to pretend violence, that part that is energy intensive but not harmful to others, but when it actually hurts it is disturbing? And thus, is it okay, morally okay, to enjoy the hunting, aiming, adrenaline highs? Or should all of that be avoided because real violence is really not a good thing.
Tentatively, I will say, in moderation the energy highs are alright, as long as you know that they are a game, and you don't do them so often that the violence itself is the only time the adrenaline comes. 

Ornaments

 Recently I was invited to a Bridal Shower. Each guest was supposed to bring a gift that started with a designated letter. Mine was "O." I chose to give them ornaments (I also thought about doing an Octopus or Oats but settled on the Christmas Ornaments). I know both the bride and bridegroom and they both like the TV show Dr. Who so I really wanted to make a Tartis (aka. a blue British police box from the show). So, to fulfill this desire I decided to make them out of clay. But not real clay, just the kids modeling clay that you bake, Sculpey. I have worked with it quite a bit in the past, and have enjoyed it. The problem is sometimes I make things too realistic, so it's kind of a lot of work. I enjoyed it though. I ended up making six.