i need a nap

The spring semester is always the busiest one and for various reasons, this one has been a tough one for me but there have been so many bright spots.  As a means to remind myself, I'll take a few minutes to share some of the highlights from school related stuff.

At the end of the advanced sculpture class early on, we all needed a treat.  We decided on ice cream and dipped out for our break at the end of class.  I feel like this should be a more regular thing.

Visits from former students are awesome.  Katie and MoLo...and MoLo's kid came for a visit.  I'm so happy I got to be one of their stops during the day.

Haley suggested we do something cool for 2/22/22.  Tutus were made, photos were taken, frolics were frolicked?  I suppose I couldn't ask for students who were more fun.  Look at these people.  These are my people.

Plaster pouring day is still one of my favorite days.  This is the first year since I started teaching that I'm not teaching a Freshman Foundations studio class but I'm glad I still get a chance to meet the freshman art majors on this wonderful day.  

Victor.  Always I highlight.  Actually all these people are cool.

Spring break gave me a couple of days to finish a drawing and several days to wake without an alarm.  I also got to do a couple of workshops for area art teachers.  Candace Cannon invited me to lead a wood drawing workshop at Lexington High.  To my surprise, one of the high school teachers was my former student at Winthrop, Allison Hendrix.  It was fun to catch up with her.

Then I got to go to Walhalla High to do another drawing workshop and got to spend the afternoon with Stan and Jarecki.

It's been so long since I got to hang out with Cessquatch.  I love her.  I met Brandy my first semester teaching at Lander and taught her for 4 years.  We've stayed in touch, even though she's now an award winning graphic designer with a big company I wont name unless they pay us.  You know the friends you haven't seen in a while and and when you do, you immediately feel like besties again?  That's Cessquatch.  We talked and laughed for a few hours until Starbucks finally kicked us out.  Look for our new talk show on your favorite network in the future.  Hello Netflix!  We're ready to talk.

Timmy got his hump removed.  Over the last year or so he grew this thing that looked like it was going to be a second head.  The growth just below his neck started to interfere with his mobility so it was time to cut it out.  Our vet is awesome so if you need a vet we can hook you up.  Timmy recovered fast and he's doing great, four pounds lighter.

I took my Sculpture 3 class to Greenville to hang out with another former student from Winthrop, Katie Poterala.  Katie is a super cool jeweler/artist and she taught us how to do some metalworking with brass.  It was great.

That's Katie beside Ashley (2nd from left).  She was kind enough to let me play with metal too.  Her place is called Make Made and you can go there to buy stuff or book your own cool party workshop thing.  My students loved it.  

I took my sculpture students on another trip too.  I knew they'd love the sculpture exhibits at the Columbia Museum of Art so we took off on a Friday morning to see some Rodin and a great contemporary artist.  We also did a photoshoot at the State House and hiked to a pizza place.  Such a fun group of people.  

I've been busy with school but I've also been turning out new drawings.  I needed to replace some drawings that sold in order to be prepared for a solo show coming up in May.  It's been a pretty productive semester creatively.  And not just for me...

My students get tired of me yelling at them to work more but it actually pays off.  My upper level people have installed several new public sculptures on our new concrete pads around campus.  This is Ana putting some finishing touches on her plant lamp.  It's a solar powered night light based on a Chinese Lantern flower.  

There are many other highlights as well that have not provided easy photo opps for me.  There was an amazing high five with ECoop.  There was an art competition where my sculpture students took 4 of 6 possible awards.  There were classes with my MFA students where they really impressed me with intermedia art.  There were conversations with students about serious topics where hopefully I was able to be helpful.  There were student who learned to weld.  There were visits from Victor's parents, who I love.  There were students who finished sculptures that were absolutely amazing.  And there was the entire week of working with my BFA students to set up their solo shows...but that's for another post.  I think I'm going to go watch a movie with Violet and rest.