NYC/DC

Went to some amazing art museums while visiting friends this past week in NYC and DC. In NYC we went to the Met, Guggenheim, and MOMA, and in DC we went to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art. Added a lot of postcards to my collection of favorite paintings postcards. Went to the Art Institute of Chicago earlier this summer with my brother too, he was required to attend the Institute or Field Museum for his summer class. All for now!

Jewelry 1

home stretch

3 nights of Jewelry 1 left. Thank God - it's been a heck of a long summer working 40 hours a week and being in class 12 hours a week! Not that I'm looking forward to student teaching at all...

Jewelry 1

Monday night was my first night of Jewelry 1 at my hometown's community college. The class runs until July 28th, we meet 3 nights a week for 4 hours, and there are 6 assignments. Like most children I've been drawing, painting, and playing with clay since I was little, but have never worked with metals before - foreign feeling. My class is about half college students, half older adults. My teacher broke her wrist in early March (I think something on a slab roller kicked back on her - ouch!) so she hasn't really done any of the steps she has been demoing in awhile. The first assignment is a pierced project, so I decided on a Celtic knot. We can choose from copper, bronze, or silver so I chose silver - it is so dang expensive! But it is cool that our little scraps from sawing are reusable - I'm going to use those pieces to make a thumbprint necklace for a later assignment. Luckily the textbook was only $17 and my Hobby Lobby supplies were less than $20 - woo hoo! I already had a sketch pad and tracing paper of course. Our teacher gave us 12 saw blades last night, and I only broke 3 so far! Once you go through all 12 you have to buy a second set yourself for $1 something. I hope that by the end of the 8 weeks I don't have arthritic carpel tunnel hands and a hunchback! I'll probably upload some assignment photos in a few weeks! :)

book

Found a 20th century art book at Urban Outfitters for 3$ Wednesday night - yay!!! :)

Dreams

So I graduated from college yesterday, packed up today, and came home for the summer. I found "Erin's Dream Notebook" under my bed while unpacking and cleaning my room, and have decided to share the entries since my second lesson plan was on Dali/dreams. Imagine the below in cursive middle schooler handwriting, in blue, black, and pink ink:

__________

08-27-00 (almost 10 years ago, I would have been about 13)

Dear Notebook,

This is a new thing I'm starting. I read in a magazine that if you lay in the same position when you wake up and don't think about anything but remembering your dreams you'll be able to remember them very clearly. If that doesn't work I'll write down any dreams I can remember with moving or thinkin or whatever. So I hope it works!

-Er

__________

09-26-00

Dear notebook,

I can't believe I haven't remembered a dream for a month. I always forget to lay in the same position and not think. On VH1 during Pop Up Video they said the average person has 20 dreams a night. Wow! Too bad we can't remember them. OK. This is what my dream was about. I dreamed that (one of my guy friends from high school) asked me out at school one day. This is weird cuz I haven't seen him forever, don't like him, and don't even think he's cute. But I guess I said yes. If you were in gym with the person you're going out with then you both switched gym shirts and wore each others since they had our names on them and so everyone would know you're a couple. I dreamed the girls and boys locker rooms were right across from each other. So I took my gym shirt off while standing in the door way and threw it to him while noone was lookin. Then he took his off threw it to me and put mine on. Weird huh? Then the dream stopped.

__________

September 30

Dear journal,

Last night I had another dream. It was that all of the girls from my softball team were going on a plane together. This plane was really weird though cause the whole team could fit across in one row of seats. There was a big solid wall of glass that we could see out of. I guess the captain must drive from the back. No one knew how to work the seatbelts, TV, AC, seats, and where to put their stuff. I had to explain cause I was the only one that had rode a plane before. Weird huh?

__________

December 3

Dear notebook,

Last night I had a dream that we were on a vacation in some town we'd never been in before. We were staying in a motel. Then mom had to go to the hospital because she had a baby girl. Then a few days later she had to go to the hospital again because she had a baby boy. The baby boy had some disease where he was really supposed to be a girl. Then a few days later into the trip she went to the hospital again and had another baby girl. Then the dream ended. Weird huh?

Van Der Zee

A Van Der Zee photograph that was made to glamorize a passing era, the Harlem Renaissance, is "Alpha Phi Alpha Basketball team." The players sit proudly in front of their fraternity house with their letters displayed confidently on the front of their jerseys. Their posture communicates strength, unity, and brotherhood, their facial expressions serious. The photographer places the team in the front and center of the frame, making them the focal point as opposed to their coaches who stand behind. To me the straight on, clean angle of the shot says that there is no way this team will be forgotten by their community.
A photograph by Walker Evans, "Allie Mae Burroughs" was made to lament the era of the Great Depression. By use of simplicity, the photographer captures the sadness, pain, and suffering that many people experienced in the 1930s. Sorrow and disparity is clearly communicated through the woman's wrinkled face, who is probably aged beyond her years.

Studio Art side, page 6, 2A & 2B

Categories that apply to your creative process or that you would like to cultivate in your art practice:
heart, mind, imagination, intuition, soul, conscience, intellect, memory, intelligence, sensuality, thought, spirit, vision, wit, feelings, muscles, recollections, instincts, ideals, impulses, opinions, sensitivities, aspiration, joy, glory, serenity, desire, bliss, kindness, sympathy, ecstasy, elation, ethics, fame, ambition, meditation, dream, prayer, travel, observation, revelation, encouragement, splendor, activism, comfort, security, beauty, order

Categories that already apply to your creative process or that you would like to cultivate:
solo, collaborative, spontaneous, systematic, constructive, passionate, trial and error, predetermined

ITM Studio Side 3K for alter-ego

Irrelevant components of "self" from the list of personality traits listed in 3B: reticent, pragmatic, irreverent, weak-willed, conformist, cynic, pessimist, coy, dishonest, banal, unmotivated, boring, passive, inactive, wavering, average, lazy.

Irrelevant components of "self" from the list of transpersonal traits listed in 3C: Family: niece, cousin
body type: brunette
leisure activities: snowboarder
political beliefs: democrat
economic status: dependent
age: 22
generational identity: Y? "ME" generation?
diet: sweet tooth
music: country, rock

Alter-ego's biography, including major events, important relationships, personal belief system, religious beliefs, political affiliations, social biases, music preference, etc.:

My alter-ego is a Laura Ingalls Wilder-esque prairie girl of the frontier in the American Midwest. Her book "Little House in the Big Woods" refers to Pepin, Wisconsin, the place she was born on February 7, 1867. (Wisconsin is my FAVORITE state!) From there her family pursued the American Dream and traveled to their "Little House on the Prairie" in Independence, Kansas. Next their home, "On the Banks of Plum Creek" was in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. From there the Ingalls family traveled to the "Little Town on the Prairie," "By The Shores of Silver Lake" in Desmet, South Dakota. (I love to travel and think this would have been such an exciting time period to live in!) Laura had two younger sisters named Carrie and Grace (I always wanted a younger sister while I was growing up), and an older sister with blond hair named Mary, who was blind. This makes me think her personal belief system/social biases would include support for the rights of the disabled. In fact, I know that she started teaching school (like I will be soon!) at about age 13 in order to contribute to her family's fund to send her sister to a blind school (in Iowa?). She also started working at this young age to contribute to the family's income since they had a bad crop year. One of Laura's pupils was a year younger than her, and she would have loved to be friends with the girl, but she didn't want the other students to think she had a soft spot, and wanted to be respected as an authority figure. (This reminds me of conversations we've had in class about not being toooo friendly with students.) I know that Laura's music preferences included her dad's fiddle, and her mom's soprano singing voice. Laura's political affiliations were through her father, who was a major contributor to Desmet, South Dakota being settled. Laura was married at the age of 18 to Almanzo Wilder in a Congregational Church on the Dakota territory, so this makes me believe her religious beliefs are Christian (mine too).
Instead of my alter-ego being the opposite of me, mine is similar to me, but lived during a different time period - one I wish I could experience as an "old soul." Not only are we both Midwesterners, Christians, travelers, and teachers whose father's are very involved in our hometowns, but we are both writers and "country" girls who love their family, dog, and corn bread! :)

Chalk the Walk 2

Chalk the Walk