Ending On A High Note

The past couple of days have been devoted to school, much of which meant time on a computer. Updating some previous syllabi was a short task. Preparing to teach a brand new class was another matter. And not a studio class, but an art history survey class. So I've devoted a lot of hours over the past few weeks to reading the textbook (new to me), and yesterday was a marathon of reconciling the structures of the class as taught by other faculty at the school (no two the same) to what I had in mind and coming up with a whole new syllabus. Was at the keyboard a lot of hours yesterday, but it all got done on time and early enough to get my usual night's sleep. Downloading these documents at school today was more of a challenge, with the university's computer networks intermittently functioning, but with much effort I finally got them out of the computer and made copies for the students. (at one point I was considering whether it would have been faster to cut the syllabus into a block and hand print it as a large edition) Classes themselves were the typical first day experience.

So tonight it was a treat to step away from computer, textbooks, and piles of classroom materials, and to pick up a hunk of charcoal and some clean white paper. A small crowd at the Belmar figure group tonight, but that just meant more options as to where to set up. Despite the sometimes frantic pace required in drawing a limited time pose, I tend to find the process relaxing. The 40 minute drawing above was my best of the night.