art festivals = best thing ever

Just when I think I can't fall any more deeply in love with Halifax, I do. Also: the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival has some serious competition in terms of awesomeness.

Monday: Tom helped me upgrade to Photoshop CS6, which was complicated by the fact that I hadn't done a proper uninstall when I lost access to the beta version of CS6 (oops). Photoshop = tons of files that are hidden all over your computer. I eventually found the uninstall application for CS6, uninstalled the beta version, and everything went smoothly after that.

Tuesday: We did a critique and then disappeared into the darkroom. I'm proud to say that I'm becoming more comfortable with the NSCAD enlargers with every day that I spend in the darkroom.

Wednesday: We started on another book, a hardcover one this time. We put together the cover in class, and we'll finish our books this coming Wednesday.

I spent the rest of the day printing for Intro Photo and listening to CBC Radio 2 (102.7 FM in Halifax).

I planned to go to that evening's dance club meeting--a belly dance class--but because I'd been coughing a fair amount for a day or two and my lungs were rather dry, I didn't think it'd be a good idea to do the class.

Thursday: I'm interested in teaching a ballet class for the NSCAD dance club, so I Facebook messaged the dance club's founder, Hannah, that morning. Because my first teacher, who taught me for six years, taught according to the Royal Academy of Dance's (RAD) method, and I only have a year of another method (Cecchetti, which is more difficult than RAD), I'll teach according to the RAD method.

That afternoon was a crit for our projects for Bob's class. The theme was documentary and documents, and I did my project on my experience of NSCAD thus far. My critique went well, though Bob wanted me to add to the project and play around with the slide show settings in Lightroom.

After class, I put up election posters.

Friday: Before class, I had a look through one of the binders of scholarships in the OSAS office. I found one that I can apply for and have enough time to do it (the deadline's in December). I'm also applying for NSCAD's two general scholarships, and the deadline for those is in eleven days. However, I don't have to do a portfolio for the NSCAD scholarships: I just have to fill out the form, photocopy a page from my student loan and write a statement about my eligibility for the scholarships. After doing the artsnb scholarship twice, the lack of a portfolio--and therefore stress--feels weird.

We spent most of class critiquing each others' work. Mine went very well, though I had to reprint one of my photos.

Saturday: I spent a large chunk of the day working on my essay for the NSCAD scholarships.

That evening was Nocturne, which was about as much fun as Harvest Jazz and Blues--but compressed into six hours (6:00 PM - 12:00 AM). I started at the Granville Campus, and worked my way down to the Port Campus, where Bob had an installation piece called Sea Wall. Much of what I went to was very avent-guarde, which I loved.

Chaos and Co., which performed at the Granville Mall. They also had a guy playing a drum kit, and two other drummers playing djembes.

Antic Art/Instar Variation. These performers danced all through downtown.

I then worked my way down Barrington, stopping to watch dancers perform in the windows of Serpentine Studios, three circus shows (one was a street-style show with fire-eaters, the other two were more polished shows by Halifax Circus: one featured juggling, balance acts and contortionists, the other was a silks routine), a show that was a combination of music (which was sometimes melodic and sometimes a cacophony), modern dance, writing, spoken word--that was more about the sound than the words themselves--and drawing, and see ViewPoint Gallery's Indivisible show, which is based on prime numbers. I then headed down to the Port Campus and Sea Wall. I walked around the piece--and then discovered that you could walk through it! So I did, and I walked through it no fewer than three times. Bob was there, chatting with festival-goers, and I stopped to say "hi."

Dance at Night at Serpentine Studios

Sea Wall

Sea Wall with the Port Campus.

By that point, it was almost midnight, so I went home.

Sunday: I spent the afternoon in the senior darkroom (NSCAD has two darkrooms, BTW), reprinting that photo for Intro Photo.

I also took some more photos for my Beyond the Frame project. I plan to put the slide show together tomorrow.