Personal feelings and emotions are essential to the process of creating art. The act of creating always requires a great deal of knowledge, time, and passion to be successful. The following thesis project is very personal and was created strictly from within, as all art should be created. The poems and the paintings that correspond to them are autobiographical in nature, but carry universal messages about life, love, and the passage of time. The poems were written by hand rather than on a machine because the works must indicate the presence of a creator who is human. Painting and poetry are media that were rather unfamiliar to me, but seemed to fit my idea for describing my feelings with their ability to draw out direct expression. While being a sort diary of my feelings over the past year, this project was also a study in the expressive qualities of painting and poetry and their effects on the observer or reader.