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It’s been a bit of  a bummer summer for me here in the Pacific Northwest. The chilly, dismal weather throughout much of June and July definitely affected my overall mood, in addition to a couple failed job searches and house drama. Now that August has brought hot, sunny weather to Olympia, I’m busy finishing teaching my summer class and frantically preparing lesson plans for the fall quarter. Throughout the upcoming academic year, I will be teaching three classes each quarter on two different campuses while still acting as the technician for the printmaking studio half time. Yes, I am crazy. However for the next 10 months, I am planning on saving  approximately 50% of my income for Future Plans, come hell or high water.

I’m also planning monthly adventures to preserve my sanity during the school year. The first adventure is a road trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend Tamarind Institute’s Fabulous at Fifty Symposium and Conference. Long time readers and friends know how much I absolutely ADORE New Mexico. As excited as I am for the conference, I’m more excited to spend some time driving through the desert. I’ll be camping along the way which means stargazing galore! I hope to be on the road for a week and a half or so, and when I return to Olympia, it’ll already be advising week for the new campus gig. October, November and December’s adventures have yet to be determined, but a holiday in Buffalo with family is in the works as well as a relaxing long weekend at Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon. February brings the annual CAA conference in New York City, which will undoubtedly be amazing and re-energizing (couches, friends?). March is a friend’s wedding in Death Valley, California – another weekend of desert camping.

Ultimately all these mini-trips will lead up to a (hopefully) month long adventure in Peru next summer, the main destination being Machu Picchu. I have never traveled out of the country (with the exception of Canada and we all know that doesn’t count). Machu Picchu has always fascinated me; the images of the ancient Incan ruins located on an artificially terraced mountain side look like something I could only have imagined in dreams. I am currently looking for interested traveling buddies, so if you’re interested in spending time in Peru, you know where to reach me.

In the meantime, Little Wings at Northern. Man, I love Little Wings. Album recommendation of the day: Light Green Leaves.

The past couple have months have marked the beginning of a radical shift in personal perspective. On all fronts, it feels as if things are changing. Changing in ways they have to, have needed to, for a very long time. A cosmic kick in the ass, perhaps? Who knows. Regardless, things are falling apart in ways that are simultaneously terrifying and exciting.

This piece of advice, given to me recently by old friend Pete, neatly sums up my current life dilemma:  don’t burn bridges until you are sure you’re 75% the way across.

That said, here are my new life priorities in numerical order:

1. Make work. Art. I need to make stuff above everything else I do in life. I’m miserable when I’m not able to get my ideas onto paper in a visual way. Sorry, blog. Lists don’t cut it.

2. Find another job. Yup. Time to move on. I am stagnating, beginning to get fungus of the brain. The Olympia chapter of my life is over.

3. Start a press. Renegade Cascade Editions is officially getting off the ground. Watch for my etsy site this summer.

4. Continue growing as a teacher. Not only does this (somewhat) financially sustain me, I enjoy it immensely. Go figure.

That’s it, friends. If it doesn’t fall on my list, expect a slow, unconcerned response. I am no longer willing to overextend myself for unappreciative others at the cost of my life passions and creative visions.

Whew. How about them apples.

This past week, I received my final rejection letter of the first tier application season from The University of Pittsburgh.  Even though I knew I had been rejected from the search several months ago when I failed to hear anything from the school, something about holding the physical letter in my hand momentarily solidified a deep feeling of failure and hopelessness. Even though all the positions I applied for had pools of 200 – 300 applicants, I was still hoping for something.  Skowhegan had over 2,500 applicants for their summer program admitting only 65! In the next several months, I will continue to watch for position announcements and join the scrambling masses grasping at the final straws of visiting faculty lines and emergency hires. However, it does look like I’m going to be stuck in Olympia for another year. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!  As I get older, it’s becoming more and more difficult to imagine starting entirely over in a new city without a job, prospects, friends or support.

In addition, I picked up one course a quarter at the local community college starting in Fall. Therefore, I will be teaching three classes a quarter next year, two at Evergreen and one at the community college, and I will continue to be the instructional support staff at Evergreen for 20 hours a week. I really wish I could just drop that gig and focus only on teaching but I get all my benefits and health insurance from staffing. I’ll continue teaching drawing, printmaking and 2D design foundation type courses, always with a healthy smattering of art history and art appreciation elements. If I can’t train artists, I will train future patrons of the arts. That’s what I tell myself anyway.

On the home front, I’m moving on up in the world… to the second floor that is. At the end of the month, I’m moving into a very large upstairs bedroom that looks out into the backyard. It’s more than double the size of my room now and in celebration, I bought an awesome retro chrome and Formica table and chair set off craigslist. I’m excited not to have anyone clomping around above me, more room to have a real office space , and a table to spread all my school work on. The room also gets AMAZING light in the afternoon. Although I’m sad to see some of the long-term ABC housemates move out, I’m excited about the collective re-envisioning process that will happen in the house over the next several months. The house is temporarily going down to five housemates instead of six to see how that affects the Collective’s dynamics (and our budget).

Needless to say, I am desperately looking forward to summer. I have plenty of new ideas for work bubbling over onto the burner… I just need some free time to stir the pot, you know? Sun, swimming, napping under the black walnut tree… these things too will be most excellent. June can’t get here fast enough.

And, because I’ve had a few requests (BTW the magic number was 18):

This email exchange happened between myself and my dean at the college. Not only does it sum up my Monday night but I’m pretty sure it’s a metaphor for my life:

Hi A—-

I am very embarrassed to report that my entire class and several guests were trapped in the lab 2 elevator for almost an hour tonight. We had to call police services, who in turn had to call the fire department and the elevator repair folks. No one was hurt, or seemed upset, and police services are filing an incident report.

My class was divided into groups to make site specific paper installations as an in-class exercise. One group used the elevator as their site and requested that we all get in, ride up a floor and come back down. Well, we rode up to the first floor and came back down to the basement without incident but then the elevator doors would only open several inches. We were instructed by police services not to pry open the doors, which we didn’t, and patiently waited for almost an hour for help to arrive.

I am truly sorry and incredibly embarrassed. I take full responsibility for my poor decision. Please let me know who else I should be apologizing to for wasting school resources and time, and if there are any other actions I can take to rectify the situation. I will be in the studio tomorrow at 4pm if you’d like to talk in person.

Sincerely apologetic,

Judy

Response:

Judy,

I’m sorry to hear that the malfunction of mechanical features of the campus had such an impact on your class, but please keep in mind that it was a malfunction of mechanical features. I don’t see how that is your fault, and I wouldn’t go looking to place blame anyway. I’m just happy that you were all able to survive the hour without further incident. Is there a silver lining anywhere? Did the class get to know each other better? Did installation art become an inspiration for performance art? At any rate, I’m glad you’re okay.

A—-

Response:

Thanks, A—-, for your support. I think we may have been past the elevator’s weight capacity, which is what caused the malfunction. But Oh! The Silver lining is so sweet… I think every class should be trapped in a small, confined space for an hour without means of escape. It truly provides a great bonding experience. At one point while trapped, a student told the rest of us (in jest) to stop laughing because it was contributing to the rising temperature in the elevator. I think we learned a lesson in art as social experimentation. Some of the students have already emailed saying they had the best Monday night ever. Anyway, please let me know if it does become a problem and I should apologize to anyone else; I know that every time the fire department is called to school it costs several hundred dollars.

Best,

Judy

Response:

Again, I don’t think apologies are necessary. It sounds like a good learning experience.

-A—

Yes, this is my life. Can I really complain? I learn something new every day. At least it makes a good story.

The holidays are over, which means that school is gearing back up for winter quarter. Classes start tomorrow and I’ll be teaching another section of foundation drawing as well as a revised and improved printmaking course focusing on relief applications. Should be fun but exhausting. The studio is fully booked and I’m going to have to train a bunch of new studio assistants this quarter as well, which (done well) requires the same amount of preparation and instruction as teaching another class. This quarter will be the busiest I’ve ever seen in the studio and it’s only going to get busier this coming spring quarter.

Exhibits at Northern are already planned through April. We’ll have the install for this month’s show later this week featuring two young local artists’ psychedelic ink drawings and cardboard/ papier mache constructions. February will feature the work of four Evergreen photography interns. In March, I’m curating a group show of  several rad folks I met at Vermont Studio Center, which should prove exciting.  In April, we’ll be showing  the work of multi-talented indie stalwart Rachel Blumberg and an another Portland based artist. Whew. I’m already four months into 2010.

I’m also applying for several teaching positions around the country as well as more residencies. The application season comes in three parts: The first tier of highly desired positions closes around the 15th of the month, with some having already closed in December. These jobs are for those folks who already have several years of teaching experience and are looking for lateral or upward career movements into higher tier research universities or well regarded liberal arts colleges. The second tier closes in the middle of February, allowing those new to the job market or those with less experience to attend the annual College Art Association Career Fair in mid February. Many of these institutions are looking for entry level positions like lecturers, adjuncts and assistant professors in foundations areas or newly developed departments. Usually these schools are located in rather undesirable areas of the country for liberal, culturally sensitive artist types. Basically, they’re the jobs that will work you to death and make you question if you want to continue to pursue a career in academia. The third tier opens up in March and April and runs through May/June. These are the positions that open up through the academic shuffle resulting from first and second tier hires and they’re usually one year visiting positions while the college plans a national search for a full time hire. And then there’s the emergency hires during the summer months, the unofficial fourth tier. These hires result from sudden funds being released to college and other unforeseen circumstances that cause a temporary position to open up or be created entirely. Usually, By June or July, the vast majority of job seekers have been so thoroughly rejected that fewer people even bother to apply during these months. The pick-up and move-your-life in the matter of weeks is also a factor, so for the more flexible, less experienced academic job seekers, this is a prime market.

I will not be attending the career fair this year and probably won’t again until I present a paper or participate in a discussion panel, which is on my list of things to do before I die.

The rule of 2010 is Work.

And if work fails, there’s always Portland.

About a week and a half ago, open studios were held. Avantika curated a group show called “The Thing.” Of course, it turned into a dance party but not before several readings and a couple performance pieces. The day started with eerie cloud formations and brisk wind, an indication of the snow yet to come…

On Monday, a few intrepid explorers and myself ventured to Burlington. Vermont is beautiful with a dusting of freshly fallen snow.

This is what my experience at VSC has felt like thus far:

It’s been an extremely long week and a half filled with days that end too quickly. I’ve been working diligently yet I feel I have little to show for it. I’ve finally consolidated and edited four + years of student work. I’ve also been battling code (with the help of Forrest, Avi and some dude from Australia that posts on my hosting forum) and the skeleton of my gallery pages are working. If you want to take a peak, check out the  student work page. Hopefully sometime soon, I’ll have everything uploaded and properly running. I’ve also been applying for a few positions, which I didn’t really intend on doing.

The Vermont Studio Center is situated like a little village within a small town. There are several housing structures (old houses turned into dorm-like boarding rooms) and studio buildings with a few shared structures grounding the residency. There is a library/lounge/ meeting space located in the basement of the dining hall. A small river runs alongside the building which is itself an old converted mill, hence the name Red Mill Hall.  The studio spaces are fairly large, and several buildings house 40 + studios. I am located in the Barbara White Studios – the farthest building from the main campus cluster. The town of Johnson, Vermont is very small and holds little distraction. I’m going a bit stir crazy at the moment but there is a planned visit to the home of Bread & Puppet Theater on Friday.

Vermont Studio Center is one of the largest residencies for artists in the United States. Each 4 week session throughout the year houses 40 – 50 artists working in an array of mediums. Clearly, one of the big draws of this particular program is the amount of social interaction between artists from varied locations, their breath of experience and diversity in practice. However it’s just as easy to lock yourself away from everyone and concentrate on yourself and your work.

I have a lot of thoughts and musings concerning my experience thus far but I’ll save those for a late night ramble.

Photos below are of the Red Mill, my studio upon arrival, Thanksgiving dinner, new friends and the only piece of work I’ve made that I remotely like so far (guoache on paper, 22″ x 30″):

On Saturday, I leave for a four week residency at The Vermont Studio Center.  I’m scrambling to get everything together before I leave. Between work, teaching, house and Olympia All Ages obligations, I’m feeling stretched thin. I’ve been trying to formulate a plan of action for what I want to get accomplished by the end of my stay in Vermont but I don’t want to make unrealistic goals or obligate myself to specific ideas. However, I do have a set agenda concerning administrative duties I want to complete including:

1. finish this goddamn website
2. get together all my professional documents
3. wade through 4 years of student work
4. finish my self assigned reading list
5. work out and write down my five and 10 year professional goals

I will keep ya’ll updated on how my work is going and what I’m making. I’m excited to work through some painting and drawing ideas I’ve had festering for a while now, and experimenting with some new mediums. I will not have access to the printmaking facility. When I return, I have a new idea for a CMYK screen printing series that I’m excited about as well. Basically, as John Cage famously said, “the only rule is work.”

In closing, reminder to self:

John Cage: Some Rules for Students and Teachers

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student – pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher – pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: be self-disciplined – this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything – it might come in handy later.