I'm A Professional Now...Maybe

Currently I am enrolled in what we call a Professional Practices class here at my university. When I signed up for this class, I had no idea what kinds of things we were going to do. I just was annoyed this class was only one day a week and had to be attended on a Friday, at 12:30. This is annoying because 1) hello! It's Friday! and 2) it meant if I wanted to go home on the weekend, I couldn't leave town until around 3 pm. Total downer.

Anyway, it turns out that this class is hugely beneficial to the success of my future. We've had speakers come talk to us about small business, attending grad school, life with a career in the arts, and also a past professor of architecture from our own university. They've all given us some incredibly valuable information and insight into what our potential futures may turn out to be.

In addition to listening to some awesome (and some boring) professionals, we also are working on developing our portfolios. Most of the students in this class are art majors of some sort, whether it be graphic design or fine arts, and then there are a few of us who are art education majors. The art students' portfolios are designed to get them in galleries, or to get companies to partner with a creative genius. The art ed students' portfolios are designed to land us jobs as art teachers. I don't know if you know this, but there's some stiff competition for art teachers out there. My portfolio is less than impressive at this very moment, but that's why we're in this class - to help beef up our games.

Right now I have a starter resume, a generic cover letter, my teaching philosophy, and a list of around 13 images. The images are of my own work, to showcase what I can do as an artist. But as I spend more time teaching, especially after I've completed my student teaching, I should have images of work that students have created under my instruction.

I don't have a lot of photos of student work from this semester's Art 100 lab section that I'm TAing, but I'm starting to compile a few. Today we wrapped up our Altered Book project (which is possibly my favorite one) and my students always impress me. 

Prince told me I sounded old when I call them my students. I feel old when I talk about my students. However, they always impress me with their ideas and the products that they can turn out in a couple hours, or a couple class sessions depending on what we're doing. 

This project we just finished involved the students choosing a used book and turning that book into something else, a work of art. I love this idea because the possibilities are really almost endless. There is a project that I don't have a picture of yet, but it's a phone book all torn apart and hung upside down. It's really quite fascinating, and I would have personally never thought to do something like that. 

This project is such an optical illusion. The black and white rings are actually the reverse of each other. The left side digs into the book, while the right side sticks out. The high contrast makes them look flat though, which is really interesting and neat to look at.

I think this one is one of my favorites though. It's a book monster - with pink teeth. Seriously, is that not adorable? And I love the eyes, too funny!

This student drew inspiration from the actual book itself - being about things of western nature. The sunglasses on the clay cactus are hilarious. And the tiles on the house are made from folded pages of the book, while the house is constructed from the cover. It's painted with tempera and acrylic paints.

So, thanks to the information I'm gaining from my Professional Practices class, I think these projects are totally going in my future portfolio.

I Had Some Milk

I was sitting in the van with five other people on our way to the airport in Phoenix. It was sunny outside, and not to mention deliciously warm. We were talking about this and that and just about everything in between when, as is hardly ever to be avoided, the conversation drifted towards the traffic, police cars, and eventually we ended up trading ticket stories.

My great uncle told a story about his mother, who was speeding, and talked her way out of a ticket. I don't believe I'd ever heard as many stories about my great-grandmother as I had during our stay in Arizona, and this one just added to the hilarity of the previous stories making me wish once again that I had known her better.

My mother has been pulled over, but being the wonderful soul that she is, has never received a ticket. She's nearing 50 people (but don't spread that around, she likes to believe she's still young), and she's never been the recipient of a speeding ticket. If only I could have been so lucky.

Since everyone else was sharing their various escapades, I thought it only fair that I contributed to the conversation instead of just soaking in all of my relatives words. I'd done a lot of listening this weekend, and it was finally time that I could share.

You see, I've been pulled over two times in my life. Both times Prince Charming was with me, and only one time did I land a citation. But, the first time I was pulled over was the funniest, although at the time my heart was pounding and laughter was the furthest thought from my mind.

It was late at night, dark, and clear skied. The moon was brilliantly shining, and also very big. I was driving Princey back home for the night, and we were headed down an extremely familiar and very empty road. We were both deeply contemplating the moon instead of focusing on driving, and before I'd traveled very far I glanced in my rear view mirror to see a riot of red and blue flashing lights.

My hands started to shake, my breathing was irregular, I quickly racked my brain for what I could have done wrong as I pulled my mother's Yukon XL to the side of the road. Had I been speeding? I didn't think so. Was a tail light burnt out? Who knew!

The cop came up to the car as I rolled down my window and stared at her, shocked and frightened. She reeled back a little, as if I was not the person she had been expecting to see behind the wheel of the vehicle. At the time I had thought her reaction strange, but as the events unfolded I realized why she did that.

"Ma'am, have you had anything to drink tonight?" She asked, in a tone typical of traffic cops.

 I looked at Prince Charming to see if he would offer help as I thought about her question. I didn't know what she meant, or why she would want to know what I had had to drink. I thought quickly about all that I had consumed prior to our departure from my house.

"I...I had some milk," I answered honestly, unsure if that was the correct response.

Her face relaxed, and she asked for my license and registration and then told me why she had pulled me over. Apparently while moon gazing, I had drifted over the center line of the road. I guess this is typical of drunk drivers, but having never been one or been around one I didn't know this. Which was also why I was totally perplexed by her opening question.

She gave me a warning and told me to have a good night and pay better attention to the road. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as Prince replaced the registration and insurance back into their respective locations and the rest of our drive was uneventful.

My story got a good laugh and we traded more memories in the warmth of the sunshine on our beautiful last remaining hours surrounded by family.

The Blues

It's raining today - a sure sign of spring. I need an umbrella and some rain boots. And also shorter pants. I'm ready for warmer weather. And I'm ready for it to stop raining.

I'm ready for a lot of things, too. Like the semester being over, the weekend, and blooming flowers. Shorts, flip flops and painted toenails.

Hard to believe it's only Tuesday. I feel like sometimes time drags on and on forever and other times all I do is snap my fingers and hour is gone. And then sometimes it turns into two hours, three hours, etc. The weekends go by quickly and the weekdays last forever it seems.

I think that's partly because I'm so ready to be out of class, and partly because the Spring semester always goes by slower than the Fall.

I want some sunshine though. Just enough to make my heart happy. And to help the flowers grow.

A Year Later

A year ago this happened. The world would never be the same again. 

Half A Century

I spent most of my spring break in Arizona visiting my mom's side of the family for the joyous celebration of my maternal grandparent's 50th Wedding Anniversary Extravaganza. 

There were lots of people there I had never met before, so I hid behind the lens of a camera, documenting the momentous occasion instead of mingling with my relatives. I did a lot of mingling too, don't get me wrong, but there's only so much small talk I can take before this introvert needs some quality alone time. 

 

It seemed like it was a go-go-go-never stop vacation that you need a vacation from right after it's over to recuperate from. It would have been nice to end the trip with a whole day of blissful nothingness, but I tell you, school just has to ruin everything. I flew back Sunday morning, and departed again Sunday afternoon so I could come back to Moscow for school today.

So my day of nothingness was spent in an airport, on a plane and in a car. I fell asleep somewhere around 10 o'clock because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I think that's the earliest I've gone to bed in a long time, but I was totally exhausted. (A good kind of exhausted!)

Besides the fact there were many people in attendance whom I had never seen before in my life, there were quite a few family members I was happy to have the chance to hug again. I spent a lot of time with my aunt and uncles and my little cousin Princess M. We spent a whole evening making up Haiku poems because M loves to write poems and put words together - she's actually really good at it. She even memorized a poem to recite for the Anniversary Celebration.

Besides the anniversary party, I also attended my first major league baseball game (The Mariners and The Royals) (you can guess who won), but we also had a barbecue, and after the afternoon anniversary get together, we partied into the night (meaning, until about 9) with more family and more food.

The weather was beautiful, and the DP and I even commandeered some time out of our busy schedules to lounge around in the back yard in our swimsuits to soak up some sunshine. We read our books, listened to some music, played with the dog, and attempted to color our skin (we're still pasty white Idaho girls though).

And then, Saturday afternoon we prepped and primped and put on our smokin' hot dresses to wow the world. I think just about all of my relatives confused me and DP, and kept complimenting my mother on her beautiful girls.

Also, I think it literally shocked everyone when they asked me how old I was/what grade I was in. It took a few tries to get people to believe that I was a junior at a university, not a high school. That was pretty fun for me, to be honest.

Mom, DP and me. We are looking pretty snazzy! 

Grandma was just beside herself with joy I think the entire time. She was just right in her element, surrounded by all her family and friends. 

I'm pretty sure that everyone who came had a complete blast. I know my aunt worked really hard to pull a lot of things together, and once Mom, DP and I arrived we all worked hard setting everything up. I think it turned out beautiful, and even though I came home completely exhausted, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

Happy 50th Gramma and Grandpa!