Work Stuff

Some days you have to set aside art to take care of job stuff.  This was one of those days.

My income generally comes from teaching art, so that occupies much of my time.  I would have loved to be back in the Studio today continuing on one of my current blocks, or maybe starting a new one.  I was in the Studio today, but catching up on some school related items.  When I arrived the place was dark and locked up.  I dropped off a load of supplies for the day, closed up again, and went out to pick up some lunch.  Stopped back at my car to pick up another load, went back down to the space, and found the door wide open.  Dropped off the new stuff, and was about to go check with the office, but found Molly in the hall, and realized he had been the one to open it back up.  So I would have company while I worked on my tasks.

One was looking at and starting grading on the major 2D project in my Intro class.   They are large and kind of messy (pastels), and I have more space and large tables in the Studio, so that seems to be the place to deal with those.  I usually have a full critique on the day those are collected, which provides a chance for the students to explain what they did, but other circumstances (university related) only allowed be to collect them.  Was planning to try grading them today (at least the ones I had, as many students didn't turn them in yet), but in some cases I had no idea what they were trying to do, a problem in an assignment where narrative is a major factor.  The new plan (as told to the class last week) is to have the crit this week, hoping more pieces come in.  I think grading would be best left until I know more about the pieces.  At least I was able to mark down which ones were turned in on time.

More productive was work on the collograph project.  I have long had a policy of introducing print projects into all my classes, wherever appropriate to the class and level of students.  In my 2D classes (going back to grad school) we do woodcuts, in Drawing class (again going back to grad school) we do monotypes, and in the Intro class it's collographs.  All the students need to bring is glue; all the rest is things they have in their kits or things I bring in for them to use- cardboard and old fabric scraps to make the plates.  Plates were made several weeks ago, and a few weeks ago I brought in ink and printing tools to print them.  Color and more collage will come from students after that.  Of course it is inevitable that some students are absent, or don't have the plates on the day we print them, and this is one project that they can't do without me.  The best solution I have is to collect the plates, and just print them in my Studio, then bring them back to the following class.  Last week I had two students bring me such plates, the two pieces you see above.  Done with water based ink, they will be dry when I return them in a few days, giving the students a few weeks to add their final part before portfolios are graded. The problem is we are running out of time.  Students who bring me plates next class can get the same deal, but after that there just isn't time to print them and get them back to the students to add their last part before the semester ends.  Well,  they've been warned.

One thing I had learned from Molly is that there were new padlocks for the gate, and if I wanted a key (and they are useful to have) I had to get one from the office, so on my way out I stopped off to see Nichole and got one.  It's been a long time since I was in the building by myself and needed to open the gate to the building, but the holidays are coming, so it's probably good to be prepared just in case.