Present Joys

• Took an in-person test for my online Anthropology class. Missed monday’s friendship lunch, which was a bummer.
• Spent a bunch of time on the phone with Colleen, working on ad stuff.
• Took part in a legendary crit in my team ad class and, in the words of a friend, “ripped some kids’ work apart”. Kindly.
• Went to another concert.
• Had some cool conversations about the Bible, prompted by an unsavory protester on campus.
• Spent pretty much every waking hour working on my team ad project.
• Took a bunch of weird routes to and from school, trying unsuccessfully to avoid road work.
• Got angry about student government and the biodegradable soup containers they are forcing upon me. Still angry.
• Got a chance to catch up with my art history teacher, which was great.
• Spent extra time at school on friday morning printing, mounting, and wrapping with my team.
• Worked really hard to get my “12-hour drawing” finished for my figure drawing class.

• Saw Jeremy for the first time since spring and did an ink-wash of him. (The man has lost weight!)
• Went on a field trip with my science class to look at/smell/touch cadavers.
• Stuck my ad team’s semi-comps onto foam core boards for presentation; was derided as a kiss-up.
• Spent a good hour and a half during a lull in my ad class taking an exhaustive “Which Hogwarts house are you?” quiz, but still can’t decide whether I’m Ravenclaw or Slytherin.
• Went to a stellar concert and still managed to get my homework done.
• Painted a watercolor self-portrait in illustration class and felt ashamed for having cheapo paper.
• Shot an entire roll of film in the span of three hours, and recorded boring details about each shot.
• Processed the negatives and discovered that they actually look pretty good.
• Took my first science test and seemed to do pretty well on it.

• In figure drawing: made lots of continuous line drawings of Kelly.
• Held several highly successful design team meetings and collaborated to produce good work.
• Developed a roll of black and white film and made some prints.
• Broke my tiny french press, which was already crazy-glued and on its last leg.
• Did a “lab” in my science class and felt nostalgia for the public school I was never in.
• Developed more photos in the darkroom all by myself.
• Worked as a portrait model for Arthur Wang’s portrait drawing class and got to sit in on his excellent lectures.
• Got a 100% on my first homework assignment for my ad class.
• KNIT SOCKS without looking while I modeled.

I’m one-and-a-half weeks into the fall 2011 semester! So I thought I’d take a minute to write down my first impressions of my classes. I’ll probably think this is hilarious when I re-read it at the end of the semester.

• Figure drawing with Boryana Rusenova Ina. She seems cool and nice, and the homework looks like it’ll be manageable. It’s fun being on the second floor of AMF because we are all alone up there. Pretty sweet deal for a monday 8am class.
• Electronic publishing with Kimberly Burghy. I can already tell this will be a terrible class. Lots of computer busywork. I don’t think the teacher and I will become friends. At least, not without significant effort.
• Photo I with Barbara Schwartz. The teacher struck me as a little absent-minded but very kind and personable. I’d never explored CCAD’s media studies department and darkroom, so it was fun to do that. Not excited about the material costs in this class, but overall it looks to be pleasant and not-too-stressful.
• Scientific applications for the artist with Julie Posey. This is a weird class; most everyone else are juniors and seniors. I balked when I first saw the syllabus, but I don’t think the work will be unbearable. The teacher is definitely a queer bird but she’s growing on me. Curious to see how this class will end up.
• Team ad concepts with Marcia Tabler. I was dreading having to be in this team class and do team things, but being with Marcia Tabler helped ameliorate the pain. She is a great person who I already know and enjoy on a personal level, so this doesn’t really feel like a new class.
• Illustration methods with Benton Mahan. This class is two three-hour periods on wednesday, before and after lunch. The vibe is very similar to my freshman design class, which was one of my favorites. I’m looking forward to having that long span of time to just work work work. The teacher is gentle and kind and a generally wonderful guy.
• Ad concepts with Mark Burleigh. The highlight of the week. He kept our attention for the whole 3-hour class period just by lecturing in a very off-the-cuff manner. I’ve been waiting for a design teacher like this!
• I’m also doing Intro to anthropology as an “online course”. I have no clue how this is going to go. My plan is to work as far ahead as I possibly can.

All-in-all, my schedule this year isn’t that much different from freshman year’s: I’ve got laid-back studio classes in the morning, comfortable lunch breaks monday and wednesday, lunchtime LA classes during lunch on tuesday and thursday, and ad classes tuesday and thursday afternoons.