Monday: That day I had two meetings: one with Karen in the morning, one with Jane in the afternoon. The meeting with Karen was to discuss my ArtsNB application, as she's one of my references (Drew's the other one).
I met with Jane to discuss stuff for my independent project. I'd intended to talk with her about creative techniques, but I totally forgot the topic. However, it all worked out: she ended up giving me a whole bunch of "behind the scenes" stuff, which is just as important.
I also asked my drawing teacher, Linda, to have a look at the drawing part of my university application portfolio. Turns out, Linda is a graduate of NSCAD: "Linda holds a Master of Arts degree in Art Education and a Bachelor in Fine Art and Art Education from NSCAD University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature (honours) from the University of New Brunswick" (from her bio on the NBCCD website).
And I started putting together the PowerPoint for Peter's class (the dress-rehearsal is this week--we get to present to the first-year Photogs!), and googling creative photography techniques.
Tuesday: That day, I decided that I'd try to have my NSCAD application in the mail by the next Monday--meaning today).
We're doing another stop-motion movie for Rod's class (we did one for Photographic Digital Imaging last year). But I couldn't be happier, as I love stop-motion. Mine is a take-off on another stop-motion movie, The Joy of Books. Except that in mine, it isn't a bookstore that I'm animating: it's the photo studio classroom.
And that evening, I started in on my drawing homework. It's a good thing I did, too: I just finished it yesterday evening. I would've been able to finish it earlier, though, if I hadn't taken two days off.
Just after I went to bed that night, the smoke alarm started ringing, and I fumbled out of bed. Even though I keep my shoes and coats in my room, I didn't even think about them. I then ran for the stairs, and ran down them so fast that I was basically sliding. I had a moment or two where I thought, "I hope I don't trip." I've never run down a flight of stairs that fast before. Then again, until that night, I'd never had to put what I know from fire drills (Kings Landing Visiting Cousins, NBCCD, the residence) into practice.
Because I hadn't stopped to get shoes or a coat (I just wanted to get out--hmm... Maybe I'm a bit too well-trained?), my feet were freezing within minutes of hitting the snow. That night was warmer than what we've been having, so although I was shivering a bit, from the ankles up the temperature was bearable. However, one of my residence-mates gave me a pair of (huge) hiking shoes that she'd found (her feet aren't as sensitive to the cold as mine are--jealous).
After what felt like forever, the fire truck arrived, and after another eternity, we were allowed back in.
The fire was a small one in someone's room.
Wednesday: We got another "contact someone at a gallery assignment". This time we were to contact a gallery that we're interested in showing at. We also talked about our show that will be happening this spring at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, and Karen asked us to come up with at least one title. I came up with three.
Thursday: We had our PowerPoints critiqued in class that day. Mine was good, but Peter wanted me to make the images bigger so that they filled the screen.
Earlier in the week, I told him that I wanted to talk with him about my NSCAD/ArtsNB portfolio in addition to talking about my independent study project. So we did.
After that meeting, I grabbed my computer and external hard drive and headed up to Linda's office. I showed her the drawings that I wanted to put in my university application. Her suggestion: only show one of the copy exercises (I had two). I picked the one that was the most frustrating (while doing it) and the most rewarding (once I'd finished it). I'm still ridiculously happy with it.
And then I spent the rest of the day working on homework.
Helen (my mentor from last semester) and I had scheduled a Skype meeting for 6:00 that evening--but both of us forgot about it. We rescheduled for Saturday evening.
Friday: That day was an interesting one: in the morning, I called Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts for my assignment for Karen, and Ingrid asked me to drop by the gallery.
On the way, I went to NBCCD to print off the list of questions, as I don't have a printer at my place, and I'm unable to get print creds for the residence printer (I tried once when I was in FVA year). Word was giving me hell that day, so I ended up typing the questions up in TextEdit, and then going back over to the gallery. In addition to answering my questions, Ingrid said that she's interested in seeing some of my work sometime. Yay!
I spent the rest of the day alternating between dashing around the school (transcript to send to NSCAD: check!) and staring intensely at my computer screen, working on homework.
That evening, I went to an opening at Gallery 78. And for once, I actually enjoyed the opening (I usually don't like their openings, due to the fact that they're so loud). Partly it's because another Photog went, and as she'd never been in that gallery before, I showed her around. And we talked the whole time: about the art in the gallery, art in general, and our lives.
Saturday: That afternoon the Met Opera performed their new Baroque pastiche, The Enchanted Island. I'm not usually a fan of Baroque opera (I like instrumental Baroque, like Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and L'Estro Armonico, Bach's Double Violin Concerto and Unaccompanied Cello Suites, and Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks and Water Music), but I actually loved this one. The music was spectacular, and the story was thrilling.
I spent the day working on homework and my NSCAD portfolio, including trying to figure out the dates of my drawings from FVA, which are my most recent drawings from observation (although the drawings that I did in Adam's class started with observation, he had us morph and mold them into something completely different from what we started with). In addition to the year, NSCAD also wanted the month, so I was forced to make some educated guesses. I don't think I did too badly.
That evening, I finally connected with Helen. As we're also friends, our conversations usually go from mentor stuff to friend stuff, back to mentor stuff, and back again to friend stuff. As I was in the final stages of putting together my application package, we talked a lot about NSCAD (Helen lives in Nova Scotia), drawing (I was also in the final stages of that week's drawing assignment), and talked about NSCAD some more.
Sunday: Portfolio Assembly Day! I burned a CD-ROM of my images, making absolutely sure that it was readable on both Macs and PCs (thank you, Toast Titanium!), as I have no idea what NSCAD has for computers, and what the people who review portfolios view said portfolios on. I also Skyped with my parents, and we went 'round and 'round and 'round about the ins and outs of sending the application.
Afterward, I walked over to the college and put one of the black and white printers through it's paces. Application essay: done. List of portfolio contents: done. Letter from my parents stating that I was homeschooled from elementary to high school, and have fulfilled the requirements to graduate: done (NSCAD wanted both high school and college/university transcripts, and although I got one from NBCCD, as a homeschooler I've never had a transcript for anything below post-secondary): done. University application form: done (though I had to consult with my parents before filling out some of the questions).
Over the last couple days, it's really started to sink in: I'm applying to university! And, unlike when I applied to NBCCD for FVA, when my parents did most, if not all, of the work, I'm doing it all by myself, with minimal input from other adults (though my portfolio was critiqued by Karen, Drew and Peter, and I had questions for my parents, on which two of the older Photogs also weighed in). I even paid the application fee myself, in the form of a money order. Now I'm really starting to feel grown up. And what was that that Mom and Tom said on the last night of Christmas Break about taking charge and going after things like scholarships, education and jobs myself?
As I rarely talk about the Monday of the week on which I'm posting (i.e., today), I won't say much. I'll just say that my application is on it's merry way to Halifax, and that I read on the application form last night that the transcript has to be sent directly from the institution that issued it (i.e., NBCCD), so I gave said transcript back to the registrar, and explained that it had to be sent from the college.
Let's go get that BFA in photography!
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