Rain coming down in buckets today. The sounds at the studio always makes one think that there are downpours on sunshiny days. So, at least the weather matched the sounds. We are all looking at the end of the week, and the melancholy is settling in, that our camp is almost done...and though we are fatigued and punchy, we have had a great time working hard, discovering aspects of our work we didn't know was there...making new friends, learning from each other and our wonderful teachers. We are going to all feel quite tired and deflated after such a hypercharged two weeks.
Vin Di Fate spoke on Surrealism,Science Fiction, Fantasy and the Supernatural Horror (ie. Dracula). He touched on the philosophy of Zeno of Elea and his questioning of what we see, how we see it and how to make sense of what we see, and logic. It was very mind mending and I am fearful I am too dim not to fully understand the fine points of what he was quickly getting out...but the quote from Chris Matthews that Vin quoted kind of summed up the top line of the discussion: " Are you going to believe me, or are you going to believe your lying eyes?" Expectation versus reality as it relates to the concept of Persistence of Vision.
We worked with Betsy and Ted Lewin today. They did their walk about, asking questions, pushing people gently to better their projects and from what I saw walking around, there is a lot of very good, very finished work. I must admit, as I got further into it today--the look and feel began to gel, and many of the spreads of my book need to be redesigned...punching up the scale, and really tweaking the design. I intitially started with a "pack the suitcase" approach...and now its looser, and more designy (at least in the spreads that I am happy with). So, I feel that I am ready to really work this thing...and that it's not all polished and shiny--it's at the starting line. I had a nice talk with Bill Thomson (a stellar children's book illustrator, fellow SU alumni, and professor at the University of Hartford) about style, about multipicity of style and his ideas and approaches to this. He was a very good crit and I really appreciate his interest (albeit I have Doug for my thesis)--I'll take whatever comes my way.
It was pretty much solid work with bookends with Vin. The dorm had free hamburgers and sodas in the breakfast room--so we did a little hanging and gabbing with our upperclassmen about their work, their classes, their understanding. We have a really amazing group of people. It is so remarkable to have more than 5 to hang out with...more PLUDs (people like us,dear). More people to learn from.
Whoa. Home Saturday. A to Cornell on Sun. Office time on Mon. Pressrun Tues> Wed. Gotta get K rolling on her AP work, on her tutoring for the PSATs and on her math. Work to do with her. Gotta get the Business rework of the business plan by August 15th. Sept 15th a color comp for the Genre Class, Oct 15th for final for genre class, Oct. 30 for the two papers. Ithaca Art Trail is October 11-12, 18-19. So, It will be busy. I need to really plan this out.
Tick tock. Time to put my head down.