I’m posting from a school computer, so i can’t put up any images.. maybe later.
It’s been a while since I updated, and plenty has been going on. I had my first and only Group critique on Friday. It was INTENSE! mostly because it was so unbelievably long. I think it was almost six hours. The crits here are very different from Emily Carr. We don’t do them very often so they are more important. Everyone is put in groups of four or five students and two tutors and then we have a time and a room where we install some work. I was in one of the last crits, as they have been going on for the past two weeks. We go around the room and spend about an hour on each person’s work. The artist is not allowed to talk until the very end of their time… so people can’t ask them why they did such and such; the observer has to try and figure things out for themselves. The whole process is supposed to be about ‘looking’. I got some pretty good feedback… and people seemed to like what I have been doing (photos later). No one really discusses technique though, it’s all content based… so I would have felt weird telling someone that I disliked the way they were painting. The crits are also very open, its not an attack, and its more about hashing out ideas than telling people what is wrong with their work. I am always worried that people will think my work is some kind of environmentalist statement (which it is NOT!) so it was good that no one in my group even mentioned anything about that… they all seemed to get what I was trying to communicate.
On Saturday, Scotland was playing Italy (and lost) and it was CRAZY!!!! honestly, i was so sad I didn’t have my camera on me. Just imagine being in the middle of a huge pedestrian street absolutely filled with hundreds of Scots all wearing blue and white and kilts and bagpipes everywhere and they are all drunk and all singing in unison every patriotic song for Scotland… INSANE. I can’t even really describe it. The cheering and chanting and dancing was all pretty cool though.
Went to see the New Pornographers yesterday at the Oran Mor, which is this awesome venue in an old church… I was telling mom earlier that everyone seems pretty short here, however, I think every tall person in Scotland was at that show. It was ridiculous.. where did these tall people come from?
I’m currently figuring out what to do at the end of term. I have a week when I can go away, then I have to be back for a few days, then I can go away again for a week and a half… so where to? I’m thinking I might go to Germany (maybe Berlin?)… so Kellen, where are the best places? Good idea? Amsterdam is on the table, and so is Paris and Nice… and maybe someplace warm before I head back to Frigid Canada? who knows. but I have to book it all soon. France just seems like an easy option because I can speak the language and I hate that tourist feeling of being unable to communicate in places. I can barely even communicate here.
yesterday I met a new person who lives in our building and i could barely understand a word she was saying. i felt like a complete idiot.
Last thing I am working on is figuring out which planting companies I’ll apply to next spring… it just seems so far away.
