First Day of School

 Okay, not my first day of school, but my first day of teaching in my latest position, classes at the Jersey Shore Art Center.  Actually I have taught there before as well, but things have been closed down since the pandemic started, so these are the first classes that I have taught there since then.  What's not new is the subjects, things I have taught before, both here and at colleges. And as of last night, I had two classes running, one with 5 students (basic drawing, taught there before a couple of times), and one with 2 students (acrylic painting/color, new for this place, but something I've done dozens of times at a few schools around the country).  Today's lessons were easy enough, and required few props, which was good as I could load in one trip, and getting out ahead of the planned Jerry Garcia/Grateful Dead festival was also easy.

The first class was at 10:00 am, so I got there around 9.  Found Nicole, who let me into the room.  I had brought something for lunch, as I had only an hour between classes and didn't want to waste it walking somewhere for food, so it was stashed in a refrigerator that I knew was in the room. And then I waited.  I had a list of registrants (from emails I had gotten all along) and I hoped they would show up.  The first sign ups were over a month ago, and I've known some students to forget they had signed up for a class that far ahead.

The good news was that students started to arrive.  Four out of five showed up, which wasn't too bad.  The lesson was in contour line drawing from shoes, something I've done since I had my first art class back in 1986, but I've been using that as an opening day exercise ever since, in various classes, and had some shoes from my parents (my collection still in storage?), so I was confident.  The students were all women, I would judge older than me, but that's no problem either.  I don't know that anyone loved it, but all took to it and did what they were supposed to, and I would judge that all learned that with time and effort, they could render things, which is the point of the lesson.  One of those students was also listed in my afternoon color class, but said she wouldn't be there.  Not because of me, but because she had decided that a Saturday afternoon class extending into May might interfere with her summer plans, and she had worked this out with the office toward the end of last week. I hadn't gotten anything about this yet.

Had my small lunch, used the bathroom, and got ready for the afternoon.  I was planning the basics of color theory (color wheel and compliment mix) the starting point for all color I've done over the years.   The student who told me she wasn't coming back was true to her word, but the other one did show.  Nichole did around the same time, so both got the same update.  Nichole was unaware of my other student's claim of having deregistered for the class, but told us she would look into it, and let us know something soon.  She disappeared, and the student who did come and I had some conversations about materials and where to purchase them (my morning group had a hard time fining stores that carried these things, which didn't surprise me, an artist and teacher who has dealt with this before), but I was able to explain things like the differences between various types of paints, and the binders that have been used all through history, as well as why all was purchased for the class. It was obvious that Nichole was not coming back any time soon, so I suggested we start the planned lesson, break out her paints and brushes, and figure out what will follow later.

So we did that, and did make a color wheel, something new to my student.  She seemed to know nothing about mixing colors, so it was informative to her.  We ran out of time after that, so didn't get to the compliment mix, something we probably would have accomplished if we had started on time, but that will wait until next time.  Just finished at 3 pm, so I shut the lights and locked the door, saw Nichole on the way out (too busy with the day's event to figure out what was going on with my class) as all the vendors were arriving, so I got out quickly and started my way home.