Last weekend I went out to Berkeley, CA, for a somewhat dual-purposed trip. The obvious purpose was to visit my girlfriend, Crystal, and catch up on time spent together. The less obvious purpose for the trip was to attend a Graduate Portfolio Day at San Francisco Institute of Art.
I was a little nervous for the Portfolio Review, as I had never attended a formal one of that nature. A Graduate Portfolio Day is a place where hundreds of potential grad students are able to meet with representatives from nearly all of the top art schools from all over the country, in order to have their work reviewed and find out whether or not they may be accepted to a program.
I approached it like I would a ski race, taking control over all aspects of the situation that I could. I dove right in. I had a list of schools that I wanted to talk to, all highly respected and thus very competitive. The first two reviews were extremely positive. My work was well received and a very thoughtful dialogue was had. The third review was also positive, though I was expected to be able to talk much more thoroughly than I did about where my work fell within a historical context. Lacking a formal art education, I fell a bit short, but was praised for my conceptual risk taking and ability to convey the thought process behind the work. It was actually very nice to hear some critical feedback at that point.
I left feeling very good about what I've created and trusting my own voice and aesthetic much more than I did before. All in all, it could not have been much better of an experience.
After returning from California, it was hammer time in preparation for a Rollerski Race that my team, Steinbock Racing, was holding in conjunction with the 350.org day of action, on October 24. There were a million things that needed to be prepared and in addition, we also had some deadlines in regard to our team, including a race suit design that managed to eat up close to 48 hours of my life.
The event was held yesterday and was very successful. We managed to get close to 50 people out to compete and another 30 or so out just to be in the 350.org group photo. It was great and all those involved felt like they were part of something much bigger than a simple rollerski race. It felt good to be proactive on a larger level.
In school, the kids have been up to all sorts of things. This past week the 7th graders did a project to build cooperative learning skills in which they ducttaped one of their classmates to the wall. The idea was for the kids to break into groups, make a strategy on how to go about the task, then share their ideas with other groups and learn from each other before actually trying to do it. (see the two posts below this one for photos). Some of the groups were very successful in planning and thus were able to get one of their classmates to stick to the wall. It was pretty cool.
When not duct taping each other to the wall, we have been rollerblading. I've been showing the kids how to skate effectively and also perfecting my own slapshot in roller hockey. We've been having a blast.
group photo from our rollerski race, 350.org day of action.
