Monday, March 5, 2012

March Break: we're thisclose to The End

I'm home for March Break--my last as an NBCCD student. For the last few weeks, the fact that the end of my time at the craft college isn't far away has started to become more real, and saying good-bye to the college is like saying good-bye to a good friend that I will never see again.

Monday: This week's class was almost completely devoted to critiquing the last assignment. Linda also handed out a reworked version of the course outline, and talked about what's next after March Break.

Tuesday: Photoshop was also devoted to critiques, as our independent-study projects were due. By that point, my card was looking really good, though there were still some improvements to be made, which I took care of. Drew also suggested (as an idea) that I make the card a vertical one, rather than a horizontal one. I'm seriously thinking of printing it at some point--maybe at Moo, as they produce gorgeous results (beautiful colour, their card-stock is about twice the thickness of normal card-stock, and it has a really smooth surface).

I totally failed to get Rod's assignment done, as the mic that we were to use was signed out again almost as soon as it was returned to the school on Monday. However, Rod was fully aware of the situation (the photo studio only has one of those mics), and he knew that I'd been trying to get the assignment done since Thursday. I plan to get 'er done ASAP when I get back from March Break. He'd originally planned to do assessments that afternoon, but because so few of us got that assignment done, he decided not to--which meant an unexpected free afternoon. I used it to get started on the first show review for Gallery as a Market Place. It's not due for several weeks, but I don't want to have to panic about it. I'm reviewing the college gallery's current show (which is coming down over break, so I made sure to take photos so that I could refer back to them).

Wednesday: That day, morning classes were cancelled for us diploma students, as we had PANEL ASSESSMENTS. Although the students did most of the critiquing, two of the teachers were there to facilitate and critique. Michael Côté and Karen Burk were in charge of my group. While mine was a good critique, it was one of those times where I got the feeling that I should have everything figured out by now. However, I realize that we all learn and figure things out at different points in our lives. I may know what I'm passionate about (photography, dance, music, politics), but until this past year, I didn't know what I wanted to do within the medium of photography. Now, I'm seriously considering dance photography: I'm passionate about dance, and so are a lot of other people (i.e., there's money in it). After we'd gone around the table, Karen asked us to "critique the critique." This is the second year that the college has done panel assessments for diploma students, so it's still rather new. My main issues were a. that my studio didn't get much info about the assessments--and therefore I didn't feel as prepared as I might have otherwise, even though I was as prepared as I could be given the circumstances, and b. that because everyone can benefit from a critique, I didn't like the fact that the first-year diploma students just had to show up: they weren't to actually bring anything and be critiqued like the first-years were last year.

Although most of us had presented our latest research projects, a couple hadn't, so they did their presentations this week. Drew asked us what else we wanted to research. For me, that's things like trying out the studio's new Einstein flashes, finding places in Maine and NB that do high-quality photo printing (I'm so done with Kodak kiosks) and researching Nikon and Canon cameras.

Thursday: All I had that day was a meeting with Peter in the afternoon. As he's done periodically this year, he asked me about my plans post-NBCCD. My answer this time around: apply for gallery shows, possibly teach at Sunbury Shores and eventually go into dance photography. He also asked if I'd heard back from NSCAD: nope. We then talked about my projects: a critique of the one that I just finished (he also asked if I plan to use it in real life. My answer: possibly.), and strategizing for my next project (two words: story-boards).

When I was done, I checked to see if Mom was there yet. I went out to the hall outside the studio--and there she was. As usual, I greeted her with a big hug. We then grabbed my stuff at the college (I showed her my photos for the show), grabbed my stuff at the residence, and drove home. There had been an accident on the highway that we usually take, so we had to take another route, which meant that we got home a little later than usual. I drove part-way. I don't know why, but we seem to discuss fairly heavy stuff (e.g., politics) on the way home. This time, I gave her the low-down on why I've never dated--and have no intentions of changing that. The answer: although I've had a few exceptions here and there, I've never been sexually or romantically attracted to other people, male or female. And I'm fine with that--I've got my family, friends (some of whom are extremely important to me) and cats, and that satisfies me. When I explained it to her on the way home, I thought it'd take me a long time to do so, but it didn't. I think I had it better figured out than I thought.

Friday: As usual, I wasn't fully unpacked until that day. I spent most of the afternoon in town, going to a massage appointment and then grocery-shopping afterward (with a stop at my favourite chocolatier). I'd hoped to skype with Helen that evening. She was feeling a bit under the weather, so she emailed me shortly before our usual chat time (6:30) saying that she couldn't skype that evening.

Saturday: I spent the day hanging out with Mom and Tom, and listening to opera (Aïda).

Sunday: Mom and I went skiing through the fields that afternoon, and then I spent the evening writing this post.

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