Back home
I have returned from the not-so-sunny state of California. It rained Saturday and was a bit cloudy and also rained as we came in on Friday. Sunday was cloudy again and we didn't really hit clear skies until we were back in AZ.
I have an annoying papercut on the tip of my ring finger on my right hand. Managed it this morning while going through my folder, which lead to an interesting story during my sculpture class from a fellow student concerning a traumatic experience in which he managed to get a paper cut across his eye. He now has a profound fear of large books.
I'm hoping to get back into riding a bit this week as I have been a bit slack. Not really slack, I've been too busy doing other things. I know there are those who have gone months or years without riding, at one point I was there, but having the horses right there makes it all the more painful and TEACHING it to others makes the itch all the worse. It's quite sad when my students, whose only access to horses are mine, get to ride more often and longer than I do.
It'll be nice if I can get back into a routine of riding regularly. I miss it dearly.
Less than two years. This semester is bumbling along at a sluggish pace, but soon we'll make it halfway, and quickly after that it'll be over and I'll be moving along. We're going to start a new painting on Wednesday, either a self-portrait or a still life. As much as I loathe doing self-portraits, I am also not terribly fond of still lifes, even if it's supposed to be more abstract ... especially since it is supposed to be more abstract. I still don't abstract well. I can simplify, but abstracting doesn't go well for me. Maybe someday I will be drawn to it, but right now the bouts are few and far between as well as short-lived.
Sculpture is going to pose a challenge. I came to the conclusion that for this assignment, which is themed "metamorphosis," I wanted to carve some wood and beat the crap out of some metal. Since I was out of town I was unable to acquire supplies, but I did manage to settle down with my idea and hacked away a bit at some wood to get an idea of how to work it. Wednesday I'll have my wood and possibly my metal, and be able to have at it some more. Crap, I left my chisels and stuff in my locker ... that's okay, I'll get them Wednesday.
Things to acquire tomorrow: Wood mallet, approx. 24X24" canvas, some bass wood, and a sheet of thin sheet metal (28 gage?).
Things to do tomorrow: teach a lesson in the morning, pay the farrier/get horses shod, pay the hay people/have hay delivered, go to training (probably have Kevin do Kash last then), wander about purchasing supplies (wood, metal, canvas, maybe a mirror), and teach a lesson that evening.
Since Painting today was just an intro to the next assignment and a quick "mini-critique" of the 10 "study" paintings we did over the last week and a half, we've been released early. Not quite early enough for me to catch the 12.00 bus, but early enough to be able to hit the 1.00, be home by 2.00, and have an hour or so before I teach my first lesson today.
Lessons are picking up. I now have both of the sisters coming Weds. rather than having them switch off every week, my twice a week lesson should be picking up the second one again here, two other clients are picking up again now that it's cooling off (it may be 99, but less than 100 is less than 100!). There are a couple others that are also considering so I might be getting a bit busy.
I'd like to be selfish and keep Friday evenings and Saturdays open, but if I get enough students they'll need to be sacrificed in order to earn money to pay bills and also to stash for a rainy day. I need to go through my account and look to see how much I might be able to give towards insurance, but I desperately need to pay off my credit card. It's getting there, but I'd rather have it at $0. Just the same, no orders from Germany this year, no music, no movies, it's going on hold, probably until next year.
Ag, hunger, I need to sit down and chew away at my lunch.
I must admit, it was rather nice to see the family again over the weekend. My mom's side is a bit expansive, she's the youngest of six kids and I have something like 18 cousins (round about), and several of them are married now and having kids, so it's quite a crowd when we all manage to get together. Caught up a bit, and still feel a bit of an outsider in some occations. Everyone else lives either in UT or CA and travel constantly inbetween, where we've been in AZ most of the time and we're always the ones going to visit them. I'm sure I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a cousin or aunt or uncle out this way. Oma and Opa have traveled and visited with a regularity, but not the rest.
Rambling aside, it's time to eat and then catch the bus.
I have an annoying papercut on the tip of my ring finger on my right hand. Managed it this morning while going through my folder, which lead to an interesting story during my sculpture class from a fellow student concerning a traumatic experience in which he managed to get a paper cut across his eye. He now has a profound fear of large books.
I'm hoping to get back into riding a bit this week as I have been a bit slack. Not really slack, I've been too busy doing other things. I know there are those who have gone months or years without riding, at one point I was there, but having the horses right there makes it all the more painful and TEACHING it to others makes the itch all the worse. It's quite sad when my students, whose only access to horses are mine, get to ride more often and longer than I do.
It'll be nice if I can get back into a routine of riding regularly. I miss it dearly.
Less than two years. This semester is bumbling along at a sluggish pace, but soon we'll make it halfway, and quickly after that it'll be over and I'll be moving along. We're going to start a new painting on Wednesday, either a self-portrait or a still life. As much as I loathe doing self-portraits, I am also not terribly fond of still lifes, even if it's supposed to be more abstract ... especially since it is supposed to be more abstract. I still don't abstract well. I can simplify, but abstracting doesn't go well for me. Maybe someday I will be drawn to it, but right now the bouts are few and far between as well as short-lived.
Sculpture is going to pose a challenge. I came to the conclusion that for this assignment, which is themed "metamorphosis," I wanted to carve some wood and beat the crap out of some metal. Since I was out of town I was unable to acquire supplies, but I did manage to settle down with my idea and hacked away a bit at some wood to get an idea of how to work it. Wednesday I'll have my wood and possibly my metal, and be able to have at it some more. Crap, I left my chisels and stuff in my locker ... that's okay, I'll get them Wednesday.
Things to acquire tomorrow: Wood mallet, approx. 24X24" canvas, some bass wood, and a sheet of thin sheet metal (28 gage?).
Things to do tomorrow: teach a lesson in the morning, pay the farrier/get horses shod, pay the hay people/have hay delivered, go to training (probably have Kevin do Kash last then), wander about purchasing supplies (wood, metal, canvas, maybe a mirror), and teach a lesson that evening.
Since Painting today was just an intro to the next assignment and a quick "mini-critique" of the 10 "study" paintings we did over the last week and a half, we've been released early. Not quite early enough for me to catch the 12.00 bus, but early enough to be able to hit the 1.00, be home by 2.00, and have an hour or so before I teach my first lesson today.
Lessons are picking up. I now have both of the sisters coming Weds. rather than having them switch off every week, my twice a week lesson should be picking up the second one again here, two other clients are picking up again now that it's cooling off (it may be 99, but less than 100 is less than 100!). There are a couple others that are also considering so I might be getting a bit busy.
I'd like to be selfish and keep Friday evenings and Saturdays open, but if I get enough students they'll need to be sacrificed in order to earn money to pay bills and also to stash for a rainy day. I need to go through my account and look to see how much I might be able to give towards insurance, but I desperately need to pay off my credit card. It's getting there, but I'd rather have it at $0. Just the same, no orders from Germany this year, no music, no movies, it's going on hold, probably until next year.
Ag, hunger, I need to sit down and chew away at my lunch.
I must admit, it was rather nice to see the family again over the weekend. My mom's side is a bit expansive, she's the youngest of six kids and I have something like 18 cousins (round about), and several of them are married now and having kids, so it's quite a crowd when we all manage to get together. Caught up a bit, and still feel a bit of an outsider in some occations. Everyone else lives either in UT or CA and travel constantly inbetween, where we've been in AZ most of the time and we're always the ones going to visit them. I'm sure I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a cousin or aunt or uncle out this way. Oma and Opa have traveled and visited with a regularity, but not the rest.
Rambling aside, it's time to eat and then catch the bus.