Over the course of this past week I have tried to regroup and get my thoughts in order about a research project. I have finally decided on researching Celiac Disease through collage and journal work. I have always been inspired by beautiful journals and collages. The overall idea and theme, after talking and brainstorming with Rachel, is the idea of Celiac Disease as a Landscape. My curiosity grew when I was diagnosed with it in August of 2009. Being in college and always on the go it is sad to say that I have not conducted as much research into this as I should have. My love for art and desire to create it in a meaningful and beautiful way, I feel will greatly change my perspective of this new life style.

One thing that is particularly interesting with this disease is it is hereditary. Over the course of the last few months I have encouraged family members who have symptoms such as mine to get tested. It could be interesting to look at family history.

Another thing that I found interesting was that at times this disease can be triggered by traumatic events in a person's life even though they may have had the disease for years prior. Two years ago my parents went through a divorce and it shook my family quite a bit. Along with that many other events could have added to the stress. I would like to look more in depth on how an event may or may not have triggered my disease.

An area that I would also like to venture is daily frustrations and challenges that I face. Being an on the go person planning is taken into great consideration of meals, snacks, and reading food labels. Things such as shopping in a grocery store for two hours, or the heart attack I have each time I go through the check out line at the store and realize how expensive eating healthy can be.

So the main ideas/ goal that I have for this project is to:

• Research different collage styles/ work of different artists
• Research my family history if possible
• Journal about my every day challenges and frustrations about Celiac Disease
• Look over my medical history over the past year and work that into journals and collage
• Research more in depth on the disease and things that may have triggered it
• Connect with the disease through my art and the construction of it by making aesthetic decisions when creating each piece

As an end goal I would like to have a successful collage piece or multiple pieces and a journal that may tell a story of the first year being diagnosed.