Art and Technology

I am so involved with how technology can work through the arts and the arts through technology that I often find myself losing sight of what is possible now. Yeah, now. I know what was possible yesterday and the day before and the decade before that, but keeping up with the progress and the things that make the arts "swing" and accessible to all is an at times daunting task. The good news... I have students to keep me up to speed. All I have to do is keep an handle on the basics and they fill in the detail. All this talk about the "digital natives" is sort of silly (even though I am sure they have different brains than I do) because I was there, I was there when it started, when it began to grow, and when it reached the point of spontaneous combustion and exploded all over the place. And I'm still there now. Megan asked me today if I had a card reader that would read her thumbnail-sized 4 gigabyte (yes, 4 GB!) camera card... and I did! Thank goodness for digital photography and thank goodness that I just bought a couple of state-of-the-art card readers.

Floral Sunset

Ahh... now I find myself trying to capture two of the classic subjects in one photo. I kind of gave up on the sunset as it wasn't much without anything in the sky in the way of clouds. But I had been looking at the wildflowers and noticed the combinations of colors thinking that the flash might be a cool thing. I was pleased with the result right away. That's really something I like, the quick result of the digital format so I can make immediate adjustments. These were shot with a Sony DSC-H50, and I really like this camera.

Morning Road

Back on the bike the last two days in the morning and loving it! I almost wish at times that I could just drive off the end of the earth and keep on going to the next astral plane. I was wiping the fog off my glasses every few hundred feet so that I could see where I was going. A part of me really doesn't care where I'm going as it seems like that time is "in the moment" time and I am not aware until I see something worth taking a photo of and then my attention is gathered, my focus shifts to the present reality, I smell the roses, shoot the photo and climb back on the bike. What an existence to have from 4:30 to 5:30 in the morning, and I'd do it every day if I could get to bed in time each night.

Music on the Way Home

I carry a box full of CDs between the seats of the truck and I suggested to George (who car pools with me many days) that he see if there was something he might like to listen to on the way home tonight. He perused the box for a minute and then came up with an album of Roy Orbison's Greatest Hits and they were all there; Leah, Dream Baby, Workin' For the Man, Blue Bayou and all the rest. It was a good ride home. I like George, and he has a liberal and what I believe to be a progressive attitude toward life, so we get along well and find a lot of common ground. It was a good ride home and the music brought some reminiscent conversation to the trip. "Young men talk about the future and old men talk about the past." I read that somewhere today.
People and the way they sometimes think fascinate me, and working with kids in a fairly good-sized school leads to all sorts of understanding and empathy for people and their attitudes and opinions. This is a time of year that is an interesting blend of excitement and apathy for many students and they are really kind of fun right now. The difficulty is to make sure they don't forget to complete assignments and tasks that allow them to complete their academics in good standing. I am having a lot of fun with most of them right now and I can't believe another school year is almost over.

Graduation 2009...

...pretty much filled up my day. Which, by the way, I feel like I am behind 24 hours or so, (although the above photo was from 4:30 this a.m.), the last couple of posts are of the day before... maybe I can straighten that out soon! Yesterday was graduation and I went to school early to get video equipment ready to record the event.

I had a student, an eagle scout who was featured in the news last winter and is a great kid, help me do sound checks and adjust cameras throughout the ceremony. It would have been next to impossible to do without help. We ran three cameras with a switcher and pulled a feed off the main mike for our sound, and then fed picture and sound (as we were taping - or DVDing) to the air conditioned auditorium for people to watch live in a bit more comfort. The gym is always hot with almost 2000 people in it.




The valedictorian was an arts student (rainbow tassel showing NAHS) and she used a Tibetan "singing bowl" during her address... it was beautiful at a number of levels. My helper and I broke everything down and I got home by 6 o'clock to see one of my old college roommates here for a short visit as he was spending the night in Ellsworth.

Outdoor Day...

Saturday was a busy day and I would have had an entry last night if it weren't for the "champagne blues", which I came down with at Roberta's (up the street neighbor) house showing. The cool thing was that there were a bunch of artist types there and I had a chance to talk a bit of aesthetics with people who understand (and weren't at all pretentious). She had built a substantial addition to her house about the same time David and I started this one, and she had invited the "neighborhood" to see what the new addition looks like. Cheese, crackers and champagne, the latter of which I am not at all used to, were the fare, and even though I was on my bicycle and rode home fine, I was extremely sleepy after supper.

David and I went up first thing in the morning to jack up Vern's sailboat (hopefully we can get it into the water this summer) so that we can weld new axles under it. One of the old ones broke in half two years ago when I was hauling it out of the water and they both need to be replaced. It's fun to work with Vern and get some things done.

The next thing going on was to put a corner drain under the steps in front of the east wing bedroom, and that went pretty smooth as we had planned to do this and have the steps in two parts with the top just setting on the lower frame. We pulled the top off, dug down to give room for the drain box, covered everything back in, and that job was done. We just need to cut a grate into the steps for water to drain through.

The third thing was the drain pipe that was sitting on top of the front lawn. It looked pretty ugly sitting there, so we dug a trench, pitched it toward the shore, set in the pipe and now it's all underground and out of sight. The only thing really showing is the stone diffuser we made at the end of the drain, but even that looks like it grew there. It was a good day and I usually enjoy working with David. Sometimes it is good to just do things and stay away from the emotions.

After we finished I washed my hands, pulled on a clean pair of jeans, and went over to Roberta's for the "party" as the lone representative of our household. I enjoyed myself and the view from her place is as gorgeous as ours, only her entire field to the shore is all lawn and very green. That's our house through the woods on the left.

The Long Line of Cars

Well, here I am sitting in traffic on the way to the Island this morning. It's 8:06 and I've been moving very very slowly for more than an hour now. I keep shutting off my truck, but I notice that a lot of fellow travelers just keep the old motor running, gobbling up $2.60 a gallon gas and spitting noxious fumes into the environment. Oh, well, I guess each to their own although I do feel like I"m setting an example - I notice the guy behind me is shutting his Jeep off now too! I called school and talked to one of my colleagues who usually arrives very early and he made it through before the accident on the bridge, he gave me some details, but I suspect the news will fill in the blanks for everyone.

I can't help but wonder how the rain affects people based on circumstance, for instance sitting in a line of cars (by the way, the radio just said that traffic is backed up all the way to WalMart in Ellsworth) can be stressful if someone has important things to do in their job or if they have nothing to do while they are just sitting. I really haven't seen any examples of anyone over-stressing, but I'm just a small part of this huge line. There were some people that turned around at the beginning of the backup, but.... ooooh the trucks that crashed just came by... "ouch"!... both vehicles were smashed in right on the driver's sides. Awful! It looks like they were both going traffic speed, which for the bridge is 50 mph. The agony of what humans can do to each other numbs my mind. Traffic is moving and I must now as well.

OK, so I'm at school now and have chosen a couple of pictures I like from this morning... they express the feeling of the day and the mood (for me at least) of being superficially connected to a serious accident. Celebration for our principal has been postponed until after school today and I will photograph and video... ahhh, the rain!

Long Day, Late Night

It seemed like I was running up and down between my 2 rooms all day today, but having some fun with my photography kids doing cyanotypes on paper and fabric. The sun burst through for us today and so development required little or no guesswork. Students really keep me busy and this is even non- graded stuff that is just new for them and may move some of them towards my Art II class next year where I am planning to feature several printmaking units as there really hasn't been printmaking offered in recent years at school. We are using a laser printer and just printing out various sizes of digital prints onto overhead transparency sheets. Students that I have had for Fiber Arts are excited about printing on fabric to sew together and a couple have brought in t-shirts to print and then paint on. All of this to end the school year and keep me frantic.

So the outside of class stuff today was me having to move the school web site to the new Mac servers and then set up the gym with video recording equipment so we can produce a DVD of graduation to have to sell (always fundraising) this summer and next fall (when I will be around). I had a student help me run cables and such and the theater director plugged me into the theater so that people could go into the air-conditioned auditorium to watch graduation. I managed to get out of school around 5:30 and run some errands in "Hells"worth before I got home (late). So I've been watching the Yankees and Red Sox play ball as long as I can stay awake up here in my studio, but am heading to bed as soon as I finish this. I feel good, but I'm tired.

Internal Time Clock

We all have one of sorts, and I think kids at school often have different ones. Some are great in the morning and others suffer a thread of distraction from studies and what I manage to put on their plate. Hmmm... I wonder if their own time clocks are suggesting not distraction, but a focus in another area? I will have to ask them.

Mt time clock was in perfect synchronization this morning, as I woke about 5 seconds before the alarm went off. I can tell that stress is reduced when that happens because I haven't spent a night tossing and turning and the internal clock wakes me very much on time. I have been stressing over a few things at school, but a huge amount of that went away yesterday as the day was very productive for teacher/administrative stuff. I wonder if people in general realize how much teachers do that is administrative work? They probably do.

I dreamed (I hardly ever remember them) of being an artist last night, and maybe that's why this blog post is so narcissistic, I don't often recall dreams. I was making art, but the weird thing is that I can't figure out exactly what I was doing... it seemed like a strange combination of painting, sculpting and collage. Oh sure, I had traditional materials that I have used before like acrylic paints and mediums and ink, but I never could directly see the work I was doing. It was as if I was looking/watching myself work, but line of view was away from the work itself.

Another workout day inside, but the routine feels good and I'm glad to be alive!

Head in the Clouds

I rose well this morning without the sometimes prevalent inner voices telling me to sleep in and pamper myself, knowing full well that wasn't what I needed. The funny thing is that recently getting outside on the bike has been great for my attitude, and I look forward to the rush of wind in my face, but this morning was rain and that was fine. I drifted into the old familiar and went downstairs for my morning workout.

The day was darker this morning that it has been recently, and looking across the bay I could see the lights of Bar Harbor under the cloud cover that darkened the sky, and there I was, controlled in my thoughts by the makeup of the day. So here I am, my muse, to consider brightness within the clouds. Sure, a cup of coffee acts as a stimulant (am going half caffeine lately - with end of the year work stress as my excuse) and I can almost feel the synapses clicking into place, but a positive frame of mind really cannot be drug induced, it has to be in the head, and the heart is what puts it there. I am truly looking forward to the day!