Saturday Studios Week 6

This past Saturday did not go as well as I had planned. It all started with a materials issue (not enough paper) then a technical issue (broken down enlargers that were breaking in real-time) and finally, a fire alarm. Yep, that was Saturday in a nutshell.

When I wrote my reflection for my teacher I was feeling particularly bad. I was so focused on what went wrong and I was trying really hard to find ways to blame myself. 24 hours later, I feel  a lot better. No one was to blame–these things just sort of happen from time to time. My teacher and my friend who visited my class thought I handled everything well! How funny that I couldn’t see their point of view until maybe today. I’m coming around. I guess I did keep my cool, for the most part.

It helps that my students are terrific and patient. I sure hope they are learning stuff.

First Stab at Editorial Work

I was asked to photograph the President’s Report for MassArt this year. I usually turn down these types of jobs but decided to challenge myself and try something new new. Here are a few images from my shoots that don’t incriminate anyone, since I don’t have release forms for these people. The great images and portraits I can’t show you yet.

    

Saturday Studios Day One

The following is a revised version of my reflection paper:

 

My coteacher and I had a great first class. The most suprising aspect of the class was how eager the students were to discuss the work and how sophisticated their comments were. There were a fair amount of kids who spoke up and others who were more shy. I hope that once the kids start working in the darkroom, a close, intimate environment, the shy students will feel more comfortable with everyone. As a whole, they seem very polite and respectful. 

I was initially a little nervous about working with an inclusion specialist because it is new for me, but she seemed to blend in well. I think it will be helpful to have her in class to assist us.

We pretty much stuck to the script as we had envisioned it. We did well with our time management, for the most part. The technical stuff always seems to take longer than planned. My coteacher was concerned that the kids were getting bored with the technical stuff. I thought the students were engaged. Perhaps the more experienced ones were bored? I think next week we will use the experience of some of the students to help us out while keeping everyone engaged–they will help the other students roll and process film. I think it was a good idea to have us share the leading role. We bounced back and forth. I think this approach helped the students view us both equally as “teacher.” During the technical overview, my coteacher explained the material and we both went around to each student to have them explain their cameras to us . I led the slide discussion because, for me, this is more challenging than the technical stuff. I was stressed about how to get them to talk and reflect about photographs but they made it easy. I had back up questions that I used to keep the conversation moving smoothly.  

Overall, I was amazed at how quickly 2.5 hours went by. I’m excited for day two.

Eating and Teaching

So my day of fasting is over. It ended last night and I feel great. I had plate of vegetables with lean chicken breast and some low glycemic carbs.  Today I’ve been sticking to whole foods. I can’t believe what a difference eating whole foods makes.

 I’m teaching my first high school class tomorrow with a coteacher. I’m nervous.; much more nervous than teaching college students. I fear finishing too early with nothing to do for 15 minutes. I have a great plan to create a camera obscura in the classroom but this New England weather is *killing* me with its unpredictability.  And, I should really get some sleep tonight because I have to show up at 7:30–oh my–but the Sox/Tribe game is tonight; first in the ALCS. Oh well. My kids will get a tired teacher in the morning.

I’ll post about the experience this weekend.

Just too much

Have you ever had that feeling that you’ve eaten too much, drank too much, stayed up too late? I have that feeling now.  I’ve decided not to eat today. I mean, is it really necessary to eat *every* day? I’m longing for that hungry feeling again. So, I’m drinking tea. I hate tea, except when I’m sick. It feels so insubtantial but I guess that’s good.

Driving to Poughkeepsie

Ravi and I drove to Poughkeepsie, NY for Julie’s wedding this weekend. I was looking at the leaves changing and letting my mind wander. I was thinking how beautiful the trees look as they cycle through life. They look most beautiful right before they are about to die. Well, not die because trees live and sprout new leaves in the spring but you can see where I’m going with this right? Wouldn’t it be cool if people changed colors as they aged? Colors other than white.  Maybe our perception of aging needs to change? Imagine thinking of aging as something beautiful rather than as something to avoid.

New Photos

I’m getting back on track with my artmaking…finally. It really happens in fits and starts with me. I have a lot going on to distract me from my work and no time to psychoanalyze why this might be. Ravi and I recently had a conversation about fear of success, which I don’t think I have, but you never know.

I really need to gather my pictures into groups or families for posting on my website. Right now, my site doesn’t represent the amount of work that I have because I have a difficult time organizing and categorizing. Stay tuned to it though. I will get to updating it soon. At semester’s end, hopefully.

Here are some new pictures that I like a lot. They are not my typical family/friends oriented images. Maybe this is why I’m so drawn to them. There is definately something about looking up and looking down but that’s all I know right now.

  

 

Celebrity Morphing

How depressed am I that the first celebrity match I got was Paris Hilton. Oy.

My charcoal drawing

I made this charcoal drawing for an art class I took over the summer. I haven’t drawn since college. I think I’d like to draw some more–loosen up a bit. My drawing screams photograph. No wonder.

Hello world!

Let’ s see if I can actually keep this blog running…