Beautiful Laundry

I spend a lot of time doing laundry. I like to collect the lint - reminds me of my papermaking days in art school. I have been using the images in an art series I call GenderMachine. I just got a new microscope that takes higher resolution images (at 400x) than my old one. My to-do list for today had “take text images and video.” I'm not ready to post tests of the video yet, but from my first experiments, I have to say, “wow.” I hope to post some soon, but I have other priorities until after the first week of March...

Button Jewelry

I just posted some pictures of the necklaces and bracelets I have been making this winter.

Thursdays, Spring ’08

This semester I have a Thursday teaching schedule which is a bit like having a one woman show on Broadway and doing both the matinee and evening performance...

It goes like this – 9-11:30 am class, 12:30-3 pm class, 3:30-4:45 pm class. Needless to say I am quite drained today. Sometimes I feel that my audience is much tougher than the ones for Broadway shows. There is never any applause, bouquets, or standing ovations... but, help me, I love it. Every minute of it.

A lovely, but chilly weekend...

Had a great weekend with family visiting from Virginia. Went to NYC for the Lion King (amazing!) and other touristy activities. Now I am preparing to go to my first class of the semester.

More Marsha...

Made updates to Marsha’s page on pbh.net and Marsha’s site.

Kicking into Gear

I’m recovering from a cold and prepping classes (from bed mostly). They are quite tightly organized now, so getting up and running is easy. They are also two of my favorite classes to teach - Senior Portfolio and Design Research & Methods. But they are also two of the most exhausting classes I teach. It’s an intense semester for the seniors, about to walk out into the real world, wanting to and not wanting to at the same time. Shifting between hope, fear and anxiety on a moment to moment basis. I like to start the semester with some basic breathing techniques and reports have been that this is extremely helpful. I try to calm their fears and anxieties as I coach them in producing the most professional portfolio they can.

I attended a powerful yoga workshop last weekend and I think it created some movement in the grieving process. I am never as productive over winter break as I hope to be and this time I am trying not to chastise myself, but to congratulate myself on taking the time to grieve, to breathe, to focus on yoga, etc. I am physically stronger that I have been in ages and I can feel myself softening as a personality at the same time.

I still have one section to finish on my art archive site, I am preparing The Scarlet Genotype for an exhibition in Charlotte, NC, and I am continuing my work on GenderMachine. But the priority project at the moment is preparing a new Marsha McLuhan performance for a conference in Oslo in March. I start going into my University office tomorrow and classes start next week. Time to be productive.

Turn and Return

I just returned from a weekend with one of my best buddies at Kripalu. We didn't sign up for a specific program - just R & R. It was planned back in October as a chance to touch my grief, get up close to it, and maybe find some movement in it. The plan was also to celebrate this friendship that will now have a bit of geographical distance soon. The weekend, from start to finish, was everything and more than I hoped it would be and I return feeling joy and peace. We did yoga classes, dance classes, spa time, and ate some of the best and most wholesome food I've had in a while. From all of this, I now have new tools to be a better person, mother, partner, friend and teacher. My hope is that I can learn to use them well. The highlight of my weekend turned out to be a meditation workshop with Randal Williams. Now to get on with the work at hand - art making, course prep, online course design... in other words... business as usual...

Farewell 2007

I really feel the need to inventory last year. If I don’t, I’m afraid the whole thing will be colored by my grief - and I know there were many good things that happened.
January
Found out Dad had inoperable bladder Cancer
February
Book in Hand exhibition opened at ALL Gallery (I curated)
Applied for faculty research grant
Gave Artist’s Talk at ALL Gallery
March
Taught Visual Journal Keeping at the Celebrating Women’s Creativity Conference
April
Turned in files to apply for tenure
Launched parts of a new (somewhat improved) website
May
House-sat for sister in Richmond, VA (1 nine year old, 2 teenagers, 3 dogs & two elderly parents)
June
Learned to eat fire (3 performances)
Left for Norway
July
Returned from Norway early (just couldn’t be that far from Dad at the time)
August
Applied for a Fulbright
Found out best friend is moving away
Went to see Dad and celebrate Mom’s Bday
Scripted and rehearsed “Understanding Appliances: the extensions of woman”
September
Marsha McLuhan performed in Leeds, UK at (re)Actor
Applied for Sabbatical
October
Kid turned Nine
Applied for faculty research grant
Kid & I performed in another community circus
November
Applied for American-Scandinavian Foundation research grant
Dad died Thanksgiving week
Spent week in Virginia helping with funeral and being with family
December
Bjørn traveled to Oslo & London
Granted tenure & sabbatical (it’s official!)
Cozy Christmas in New Haven with Friends
Began mourning losses
Set up a blog to go with website

(Not included on this list: classes, committee work, teaching prep, parenting, etc. I know I'm also probably forgetting things...)

Furiously updating...

Uploading videos to YouTube and trying to finish* pbh.net by Noon tomorrow...

* not that a website is ever finished, but there will be content on every page + many updates...