Class is Back in Session

Things have been interesting around the Boatworks for months now.  In October the town finally began the long planned repaving project on and around our street, but before it got too far Sandy came to town and put things on hold for months.  Our property was filled with disaster aid trucks, and the town had plenty of other problems to deal with through the end of 2012.  We fixed up our building in early January and things have been busy in the Boatworks ever since.  Things have been busy outside, too, and what's found outside our building has changed from day to day.  Installing the current show, and getting visitors into the gallery can be a challenge some days. and parking can be unpredictable.

This morning was the first day of the new round of woodcut classes at the BAC, but as I approached the building I found myself wondering how close I could get.  All over our parking area were heavy trucks (bulldozer, back hoe, dump truck, etc), and a bunch of guys working around and in a deep ditch cutting about 50 feet through our parking area.  After studying the lay of the land from my car in the street, I found a route I could take to get my vehicle up to the front door.  Eventually I found the one guy on the crew who could speak some English and he assured me my car would be safe in that spot for the duration of the class, but it was best to have the students park elsewhere.  By then one had already found a spot in the municipal lot, and as the other pulled up by my car, I sent her to the side lot. I knew that I had the two, and had hoped that one or two more might show up to join on the first day (it's happened the last few times), but that ended up being the whole class.  Other than the challenge of getting to the front door, things went smoothly.  Both of today's students are taking it for the fourth time, and showed up with blocks they had cut on their own since the last class meeting in November.  This was the first time I didn't have a single new participant, so I didn't have to spend any time going through the history of woodcuts, showing examples of prints, or demonstrating how to get started.

Between my concerns about making sure everyone could find parking and get to the front door, and that they were ready to start as soon as they got to the table,  I didn't get a chance to take out my camera and get any photos of the process or the resulting prints.  Maybe next week, assuming we can get into the building to have the class.  However I did have time later to take a photo of the above newspaper clipping, the article from last week.  One of my students is from one of the far away part of the county where one of the papers is distributed, so she brought me a copy.  Looks better in print than online, but most things do.