Hellooo!

Hi everyone! My name is Aleida... pronounced: uh LEE duh...

Wow, I am really excited for our trip! Guys, it's gonna be here so soon! Time is flying and we'll be in Europe before we even know it. Well let's cut to the chase... a little bit about myself!

I am a senior at SUNY New Paltz and I actually only have one semester of school left... awesome. I am an art education major, with a concentration in painting... oil painting. I will be student teaching this fall. My minor is in art history, and I am also looking to get my master's degree in art history. I absolutely love art and art history! Art geek, I tell ya. I used to take all of these art history classes and couldn't figure out why everyone hated it and I was getting A's on tests and papers... turns out I really really love the stuff. I can't get enough of it. Last summer I travelled to Europe for the first time with New Paltz's study abroad program with the one and only... Beth Wilson! (and 12 or 13 other girls) We basically hung out in France for the whole month of July and looked at art the whole time and did all that Fontainebleau stuff. It was a great experience travelling and learning so much about art history and art in general. I enjoyed the whole time there and I miss it quite frequently... it was the best combination; big museums, small museums, art, art history, awesome american friends, cool new french friends... plus i went for a ride on a vespa with one of cute french boys. Best time ever.

Let me just say that I, too, love all things European. My mom keeps asking me, "why do you want to live so far away!?" because I keep telling her I'm moving to Europe someday... only joking sometimes.
Sidenote: There's an art history program that I am looking at for my master's right now, where one semester is at the university in syracuse, while the other 2 are in Italy... my mom is freaking out I think.
Anyways...
Aside from being in France, the only other foreign country I have been to is Canada, but it's a frequent visit, as it only takes about 2 hours for me to get there. I really don't know any German or Italian but I almost majored in Spanish and that really means nothing except for the fact that I can (usually) pick up languages fairly quickly. For right now, I at least know what bratwurst is and I like the word "wiener schnitzel."

I have been pretty busy so far this summer...Between babysitting, coaching soccer, and working on a bunch of commissioned projects it's been hard to find time to sit down and actually realize how soon the trip is. Currently this summer I am working on a series of abstract landscapes (I think they are definitely inspired by last summer's study abroad even though it took me a year to figure it out). I've been oil painting almost everyday and I'm excited to work on some paintings inspired by our trip. I am really into artworks of every kind, but I absolutely love works from the Renaissance and I love French Impressionism. I don't really know a whole lot about contemporary art. I am familiar with a lot of work, but I don't know how I feel about it or what to think about it quite yet. I have learned about contemporary artists more through my painting classes than I have from the one contemporary art class I've taken. My personal artwork is getting more and more abstract by the day and I research a lot of contemporary artists while I'm working. With that being said, I am extremely excited to see these exhibitions, I love learning.
Ahhh well that's a little bit about me... feel free to contact me :)
email: foulk91@newpaltz.edu or aleida233@hotmail.com
aim sn: oh leids
and I've got all that myspace and facebook stuff... just search "Aleida Foulk." It's a pretty unique name and you shouldn't have a hard time finding me.

See you all soooo soon!!!
-Aleida