Unpacked, a bit rested, ready to work again. I got a new toy a while ago, a very small etching press, which I hope to make use of in the next three months. Besides continuing with printmaking, I am starting photography next term as well, and anticipate it as much as my print studio; having taken a photopolymer class this past term has certainly added to this excitement. I hope to be around here more a bit more, but even if I am not, I would like to wish anyone out there a great summer.

...until semester's end. I don't believe it.

Big projects lined up, ready for me to dive into them---I've needed some time away from people anyway. Hopefully I can upload some images after this time, but for now, deep breaths and DVDs to clear my mind.

I am turning 20 in about a month from now and that's getting to me. I feel like the last four weeks have gone by obscenely fast, and once I reach my 20s, life will slide by just as quickly.

I can't complain really. Life's good. College life is really good. I'm fairly productive and maintain my sensibility somewhat, and that's all that matters.

Cheers.

I had a really really bad day. It is the first time in a while where I've felt a lapse in my control and a stranger's distance from the person in the mirror, whoever's controlling my hands. Stress can really imbue a superficially controlled temperament, at least my sense of balance, and throw everything way off course. It's pretty scary, though it always gets to this point before break (the second half of next week). Things should hopefully recover by the next half of term.

It takes a lot for me to really take action, when separated from my studio...

I kill a lot of time when I am home---a lot. I get things done, but without much will to leave the house or pressure to meet deadlines, from assignments to dining hall hours, this progress is pathetic.
But this was only the two week gap between my semester's end and the beginning of my Field Work Term session. For this mandatory work period between the fall and spring semesters, I found work encompassing both of my areas of discipline at school (visual arts/printmaking and spanish), an apprenticeship at a printshop in Spain.
I am leaving technically today, in approximately twelve hours, for the airport and my flight to Barcelona, where I will be living for the next six weeks.

To rewind to this past term, I had a varied and relatively laid back experience full of plenty of experimentation. Next term will be death---very intense by the look of the roster, but doable and probably very enjoyable. I will be taking courses ranging from Spanish theater and Don Quixote to French, Lithography, and Photointaglio ("Photos with Ink" as the course is titled). But that's where I enjoy my school and my education. There is allowed the freedom to follow several courses of study and integrate them within a single course or combination of courses throughout the four years of education. Printmaking is a similar thing, involving drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography if one desires. My Photos with Ink class is about a third pure printmakers, a quarter pure photographers, the rest a mixture of both. My only hesitation is returning to a larger class format of around fifteen people after having perhaps the best course I will ever have in my life this term, in part due to its seven person lineup. But first I need to finish packing.

...and happier than I had anticipated. I am keeping myself busy (preferably outside of the house) by walking a lot and doing some scraping and burnishing of found copper plates. When I find my camera again, I'll update my account with my print work from the spring semester at Bennington. My birthday's in a week, another cause for mild celebration...