What a great way to get up and greet the morning. Yes, with sunshine! but also with the happy Juan Gris, whose synthetic Cubism makes the world a better place.
I am surrounded by pets. The cats flank either side of this powerbook and the black shadow is lying on my feet. The cats are hungry and know if I succumb to their watching me, there will be extra food. Shadow is just protecting me...(I guess).
Today is lots of business dealings which will be great to get behind us prior to the next two weeks happening. Grassroots is beginning to perc. You can tell that the tribe is beginning to assemble from the hangerouters in front of Gimme! coffee and the stackouts of beer (lovingly referred to by the crowd at the Shure Save as "THE WALL OF BEER"). Wednesday is promising to have great music before the festival with Keith Frank on the Commons, Toivo at the Farmer's Market in Tburg and American Hellcat Drivers at Barangus. Rob has timed it all out with sequencing and drive time all figured in...so what with the volunteering, the hanging out with friends and the guests coming to visit, it should be a wild place here in Trumansburg while I am embracing peace and personal turmoil all on a 8.5"x 11" stack of tracing paper.
I feel that if the last two weeks of Hartford are any match to the last two weeks of Syracuse (which, I thought was going to be a waste of time and it turned out to be the great jettison into my working analog and getting back to my loves)--it should be good. We will be having a group crit a week from Sunday and a week from Saturday, a road trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. Of course there is our show in the Silpe Gallery and our graduation dinner which the teens and I made favors (stacks of black pencils that said Hartford Art School Illustration MFA 2009 tied with red and white ribbons). I am giving some Luckystone prizes (small stuff...but meaningful to me as I feel we should encourage and support those in the program in small ways. I figure if I can model this behavior and continue to give those prizes after I leave, maybe others will be inspired to do the same). I set up the blog "Squint" for Hartford along with establishing the Facebook Group for the MFA program. I hope others will raise their hands and contibute versus assuming that this stuff just "happens". It saddens me that there are so many that just take and take...and wonder when it stops, why? I saddens me there is no commitment beyond the personal to expand to a commitment to the group. This putting oneself forward should be part of the growth...but you cannot make people reach out when the universe rotates around them. Harumph. Sorry about the rant...(I did clip a bunch out as it got too vitriolic and petty).
With the prizes, I am going to talk about taking trips/journeys and how some people plan and organize while others wing it. Both people come back from their journeys changed, inspired and hopefully open to continue to do this. Our collective shared journeys embrace a desire to go to places that are not commonplace for each one of us. We may physically be in the same place, but every student is on his or her path, some searching, some sharpening-but changing and being open to that change. I am giving out the personal maps for each traveller.... Nuf said. I need to script this thing.
Shady is growling in her throat. I gotta go to the door.