Wednesday is mine!

The last day of the year will be filled with fun tasks to complete. I'll be working on the bus and also on listing Dan's comics for sale on eBay.

I'll visit a bit with my grandmother who will be celebrating and avoiding her birthday. I'll sure be glad when I shake this cold, though. It's time to wrap a few loose ends up and move into 2009 ready to enjoy it all.

So, it's been a while!

I must admit, I nearly forgot my password when logging in. The last post was at the end of June, this one at the end of December.

I'm really glad to kiss 2008 goodbye. I'm sure many others are also. It's been a tough year, personally. Professionally it has only gotten better with each step. The board and the people supporting the new school I work at are incredible, creative, inspiring people to work with. The students and parents are amazing also.

Many of the issues at my last school have escalated, and my former colleagues are calling on me for my documentation. Yikes. I'm grateful to be back home.

I've been busying myself with renewed interest in my art career, my spirituality, and my connection with my family. A 'project' I've inherited has been taking inventory of, and grading my uncle's comic book collection. I have been reluctant to do this since the get-go, but it needed to be done. I've been able to learn a bunch about the books he loved so much, and I've also photographed each cover. I can use the images of each one in my art class now. Of course, it's also necessary to list them for auction online. I've finally gotten over my feelings of betrayal to my uncle by selling off his collection, and the brand-new eBay store is up and running just this week. I feel much less guilty since they're not my books, it's not my profit, and it's helping my grandparents settle the uncle's estate.

networking as an artist

My friend Joey published an article about self-promotion as an artist.

It's sometimes difficult to define what your marketing goals may be when you begin. There are so many new avenues to explore now that the accessibility roadblocks are being removed by technology, and electronic social networks. I love that Joey mentions the co-op. That can be an excellent beginning.

the interval of time and space

The Japanese word/concept of 'ma' has been the theme here for a while now. As I understand the translation, ma is the empty space in the composition - the room to breathe. I have also heard it described as the calm and serene pause before something is about to happen... emptiness, but temporary and necessary.
In the time and space of now, my house is 95% packed up, my art supplies are cleaned out and ready to purchase new paints for a class, I am waiting another hour and a half to register for the classes, the heavy items are broken down to their smallest components where possible, and the moving truck will be ready to pick up tomorrow. This period before chaos used to make me nervous and excited. Now, though, I'm relaxed. I'm embracing the emptiness... the lack of things on the to-do list. It means that I can't drive myself crazy trying to do too much. The uncertainty of medium I'll be teaching next year is also cool, because I get to think in possibilities again, not limit my imagination with sequences and lessons tailored to a budget or tech issues. As yet, the limits do not exist.
Ahhh! So, I get to be like the horse in the picture: just chilling out and enjoying the day. Cheers!

walking the bridge

The pics are in from the tour of town. There's a home-made suspension bridge that crosses the Verde River right across the street from the school. Now, most of the time, this 'river' is more of a slow moving creek. When it's January and February or during the monsoon season - this lazy little creek is a class 5 rapids. One of my colleagues lives across from the river. When it floods, the waters rise about 12-16 feet above the level of the road. So instead of driving (swimming) and getting killed, the residents cross the bridge that's about a 1/4 mile long.

Yup, that there's chicken wire, 2x4's, plywood, and a steel cable the thickness of my index finger.

photographing

On a trip around part of the town, I got some shots of thing that struck me as strange when I first noticed them. Now that I see them as a way of life for those who live here, I'm glad I got the shots of the things before leaving. I'll be taking my camera along with me for trips in and around town. I have about 3 or 4 more rolls of film to burn up. I'll post images once they're developed.