nightswimming: September 2011

Sunday, September 25, 2011

hooligans social event #1 of 2011

The Honeycutters

Langhorne Slim and the Law

Georgie and I were the Red Sea. He was Moses.

at the Visulite Theater, Charlotte, NC 9/24/11

SandySingletary, Langhorne Slim, Ginger

Photo by Josh Drews!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

strange currencies

Good news:

Molly got an art job! If you have more time than I do, feel free to scroll through the last few years of blog posts and read about Molly. The short version is that she changed her major to sculpture years ago and her mother saw fit to blame me. I ended up promising her mother that Molly would not starve to death and would be able to find gainful employment with her sculpture degree. Molly begins work in a week or so at the Columbia Museum of Art which is great for her and it means that I'm off the hook with her mom. Win-win.

And this little green guy had a good weekend. He nabbed the 1st place sculpture award at the 38th Annual Juried Show put on by the Spartanburg Artists' Guild.

G and I sorted through the works during the reception and she and I picked our favorites. Neither of us chose my own....which now that I think about it could be worrisome. My pick won something in mixed media and hers won 1st place in painting. Her pick placed higher, so she won the contest. She was nice enough to buy me a congratulatory coffee on the way home.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

country feedback

The Traveling Vietnam War Memorial made a stop on campus last week. This small replica of the memorial in Washington DC contains all the names of US soldiers killed in the line of duty during the Vietnam conflict. I suppose this is reason enough to force my sculpture classes to walk across campus to walk through the memorial but the added bonus for us is the connection to Maya Lin, earthworks, minimalism, public art, calls for artists and the experience of viewing a large scale public sculpture.

As both classes moved across campus they were chatty and jovial. Something interesting happened, though when they turned to walk down the wall. It's tough to put a finger on a single cause and I'd bet there were many factors but man, did they get quiet. It was great to step back and watch them and other viewers as they reacted to the wall. There were elderly veterans sharing stories, family members placing flowers under names, and the strongest men you'll ever see were openly weeping.

After a much quieter walk back to the sculpture room we looked over some slides of the full size memorial in DC to discuss the differences between it and the replica. We talked about Maya Lin and viewed some of her gallery pieces which just so happen to utilize the lamination process the Sculpture I students are knee-deep in right now.

Now that the semester is under way, there are all sorts of things happening. Just so that none slip through the cracks......

Someone graduated with their MSN degree. This someone graduated with honors, still hanging on to that 4.0. The fact that she did this after completing her BSN all while working full time is impressive. The fact that she did it while raising 2 kids and actually having one of them is even more impressive. True fact: During one semester she planned and stayed one week ahead of the class schedule for the entire semester. She turned in her final project a week early and after clicking the "submit" button she promptly went into labor and had a kid. She was out of the hospital and back home before the rest of the class finished their semester.

More good news....the grass has been cut again. Yes, all of it. Better news....I didn't have to cut it. It seems the cows are hungry around here and my acres of grass make great snacks. Sweet.

And Zeke. That's Zeke. He's the new plantation dog. He's a lab and since we had one for 11 years we really should know better. But he's smart and he's a good dog. Let's just hope he doesn't decide to eat the house.