My Dream Cafe/Art Gallery

This is a video I made for my After Effects class at University of Florida. I put together a bunch of elements to create my "dream" coffee shop/art gallery. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXNsRf95WAg&feature=plcp

"New Page"

I finished this picture today.  It is called "New Page" and it is 16 by 20.  I will be selling it for $125. Check out my website: www.ialannamurphy.com to see some of the other pictures I have recently painted!

More Travels in Europe

Living in Spain gave me the opportunity to travel to nearby countries as well.  I had friends studying in Paris and Florence and I was able to stay with them and have them show me around their cities.  I also traveled to Portugal and London with the girls I lived with and met in Spain, and I traveled to Malta with my friend Christen who visited me in Spain.

Paris, France

Moulin Rouge:

Malvina, one of my best friends who I was able to visit in Paris:

Refuge des Fondus, a really fun place to eat in Paris:

Versailles:

London, England


London Bridge:

Telephone booth:

Platform 9 3/4:

Lisbon, Portugal

Fado singers:

Tejo, the Portuguese water dog that stayed at our hostel! :

Sintra:

Florence, Itlay

My first aperitivo:

A trip to Cinque Terre:

Strolling around with Inbar, one of my best friends from High School:

Malta

Christen, my previous roommate/great friend, eating a typical Maltese breakfast:

The famous Malta bus:

Besides these amazing travels to other countries, I also had quite a few people come to visit me in Spain.  My friends Malvina, Inbar, and Christen came to see me.  You saw these people in the photos I just posted. And my mom came to visit me as well as my friends Eitan and Casey.  The five months I spent in Europe were a great experience and I am grateful for everyone I shared these memories with!

Eating at Botin, the oldest restaurant in the world, with my mom:

Eitan, Casey, and I stepping on Kilometre zero in the center of Puerta del Sol:

My Study Abroad Experience

When entering college, I didn't know what I wanted to study.  However, the one thing I did know, was that I wanted to study abroad.  In my second year at University of Florida, I decided to get a job at Starbucks in order to start my savings for wherever I would go.  The following summer, while my family took the usual trip for art shows (as seen in my previous post) I stayed home in order to work at a local Ale House to add some money to my account.  These jobs, a long with the amazing help from my parents, allowed me to spend the second semester of my junior year in Madrid, Spain.

The study abroad program I chose was through the Business Department at UF.  I planned on minoring in business, so this was the perfect way to get some Business and Spanish credits accomplished while being in another country!  The school was great about setting up meetings so that all the study abroad students had opportunities to meet one another and get an idea about what the next five months would look like.
The apartment I signed up for was extremely close to the city center- only about 10 minutes from Plaza Mayor and not much further from Puerta del Sol.  I got really lucky in regards to roommates as well.  I lived with two girls named Kasey and Kristen who also attended UF and I lived with a boy named Borja who was from Murcia, Spain.

All of us in our apartment:

The first month in Spain was spent in an intensive Spanish course where we spent our time studying Spanish five days a week for five hours a day.  The following four months consisted of Spanish classes on Monday and Wednesday and Business classes online.  This meant that we had a lot of time in these four months to travel.  I traveled a lot with my roommates as well as some other friends that we made through our school, Antonio de Nebrija University.  We also met Gonzalo, who was from Madrid and knew everything there was to know about the city.  He took us everywhere. Without him, we probably wouldn't have seen half the places we got to see!

Gonzalo showing Kasey and I the park El Capricho:

Here I am in Segovia, Spain with Kristen, Sarah, and Kasey (one of our first trips):

I was able to see ten different cities in Spain and each trip was unique, fun, and a learning experience.  The following pictures are of some of the places I was able to go in Spain.

Sevilla:

Granada (where I went skiing for the first time!):

Barcelona (some cool art on the street):

Valencia (eating paella valenciana):

Zamara (at a winery):

Here are some pictures from last summer, 2011, when my family spent time not only at art shows, but also exploring some amazing places.

Brandywine Falls in Ohio:

One of my dad's pieces exhibited at the Boston Mills Art Show in Akron, Ohio:

Cherry picking in Michigan:

Canoeing and running down sand dunes in Michigan:

My dad's booth at the Chicago Tribune Art Fair:

Tyler and Brittany's art:

Mine and Kelsi's art:

My Family

Let me introduce you to my family.

My family is extremely important to me.  Without them, I wouldn't be who I am or where I am today.  Each member of my family has been influential in my life and I am constantly learning from all of them.

I am the oldest of the four sisters.  While all four of us share many interests and enjoy a lot of the same activities, there are still many differences among us.  A few things my whole family shares includes our love of nature and being outside, our love of animals, knowing the importance of being a genuine person, eating good food, art, listening to music, and just enjoying each others company.

My dad's art career has been the best way to keep our family close.  My dad works from home (he made the garage his art studio) and my mom runs the business side of the art business.  Every summer we spent traveling from state to state to sell my dad's art.  We would all pile into the truck and start our drive to places like Chicago, Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, New York, and more.  These months on the road served as a sort of working vacation because although this was a way of making money, it was also an opportunity to see the country.  From these experiences, I developed an interest in art and the desire to see the world.