I'm set for next year (or almost)

I got into one of the universities that I applied to!! However, I won't tell you which one just yet. Remember: there were two of them. NSCAD University and the University of New Brunswick.

Monday: Mom and I managed to leave home on schedule this time. I think it's because I made sure to pack everything (except last-minute things, like my iPod) the night before.

Imagery was shorter than usual, as we went over to the college library to find a painting in a book to modify (we were given a list of artists to choose from). I decided on a painting by Botticelli, and I'm going to modify it so that St. Augustine is surrounded by tech stuff, rather than books and a sheet of paper. Linda also talked about our independent projects. We're to choose an artist, and do a mixed media piece based on something by that artist. Right away I chose William Kentridge, as I was really inspired by the production of Shostakovitch's The Nose that he designed for the Met Opera.



Tuesday: We finally started using Final Cut Pro X this week! I cut up and messed around with the stuff that I shot with Tom when I was home in February. This version of Final Cut feels a lot like iMovie, which I've also used. Although I've never used any other version of Final Cut, I agree with the people who say that it's been dumbed down. Final Cut Pro is one of the best pieces of movie-editing software out there--it should feel like it!

After class, I walked to the Home Hardware and bought TremClad paint, as I needed to paint the frames that I wanted to use. There are a bunch of frames in the photo studio that have scratches all over them, and it drives me nuts because those frames reflect badly on the college. If we bash up our frames this badly, then what exactly do the students learn here? That dinged-up frames are acceptable? I spent the rest of the evening painting frames, and was really happy when I was done. It was a long evening.

Wednesday: The day before, I found out from Karen that we were putting up our show at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre on Wednesday. Because I had yet to frame my photos **gasp**, I asked her if I could skip Gallery as a Market Place so that I could get my photos framed. As I expected, she was okay with it. I got there around my usual time (for morning classes, which start at 9:00 ADT/8:00 EDT, I'm usually at school around 8:30 ADT/7:30 EDT), and got straight to work cleaning glass, taking said glass out of the frames that they were in originally--note to NBCCD: get more glass for the 25"x19 1/4" frames--putting the glass in the frames that I was using, replacing one of the sheets of glass when I found out that my original piece had a chip taken out of it, and fiddling with the hardware--thanks to our maintenance guy, Joe, for helping to get the snap-in hangers to stay put. Eventually, I got both photos framed and wired, and Karen packed them and took them over to the Arts Centre with everyone else's photos. **whew!**

After all that fun, the afternoon was rather uneventful. We talked about our next research projects, and Drew and I went down to the lighting studio afterward so that I could see how the Speedotron power-packs are set up now. Drew rigged them with a couple of Paul C. Buff transmitters so that they'll slave perfectly--which makes me happy.

Thursday: That morning we talked about our next independent projects. Some of the students already had stuff to show. I didn't, but I talked about what I'll be doing.

Over lunch Larry, one of my classmates, shot my portrait. I'd asked him to do one for me as I didn't have any that were really, really good.

In the afternoon, I found out that I'd been accepted at one of the schools that I'd applied to. And that school is (drum-roll, please)... NSCAD UNIVERSITY!!!!!!!! I still have to negotiate with them about which credits have been accepted, but the thing is, I'm in! And I did it all on my own, with only a little bit of input from other people (mostly about my portfolio).

Friday: Show-opening day. Larry gave me the photos soon after I got to the school, and I paid him (yay for student rates!). As they were the full-size files, I had to downsize them and switch them from sixteen-bit to eight-bit so that I could save them as JPEGs and put them on my website. I'm really happy with the photos.

I tried to get as much homework done as possible before going over to the Arts Centre. For me, that opening was a lot more successful than the City Hall one last year: at that one, I only talked with a handful of people. But this time, I talked with quite a few show-goers--even some that I didn't know, which was great. When Karen opened the show, she invited each of us students to come up and she talked a bit about who we are, what we're into and what's next for us. When it was my turn, she mentioned that I'd been accepted at NSCAD. I added that I got word just the day before.

Afterward, Karen and I and a couple of my classmates went back downtown to the Garrison District Ale House, where we had supper. The place was packed, and Karen and I (we were the first of our group to arrive) had to wait a bit, as the Ale House doesn't take reservations on Friday evenings. Nonetheless, we had a good time. Somehow, at one point we got onto the subject of pricing photos, and I mentioned to Karen that, although I have an advantage because my mom's an artist, I'm still a bit clueless as to how much to charge for my work--whether it's at the farmers' market, a gallery, or if I get my own studio someday. So I want to talk pricing at some point before the year's over. Karen agreed that it's important, and she's going to do a class on pricing--and maybe invite Ingrid Mueller to speak at our class (we planned to visit Ingrid's gallery earlier in the semester, but she had a show opening that week).

Saturday: I shot for my research project--and even used the big (and I mean BIG) softbox for the first time. For once, I had no issues slaving the Speedotrons. YYYYEEESSSSSSS!!!! As for the rest of the day, I think I made up for the three hours that I lost on Friday.

Sunday: Today was the warmest day that we've had this year: I had to ditch my winter coat in favour of a fleecy, and even that was too warm. I finished up stuff for tomorrow, did preliminary work for the first section of my independent project for Peter's class (I'm doing a political video, raising awareness about some of the plans that Harper has up his sleeve). I skyped with Mom and Tom, and went 'round and 'round and 'round with them about NSCAD stuff. And I talked with a friend that, although she's also a photography major (first year), I hadn't talked with beyond just a quick chat in passing in months.

Bangor Symphony + Star Wars = awesome

Just when I thought Star Wars couldn't get any cooler, it did--with a little help from the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. There's a reason why I love the BSO as much as I do.

Monday: All I had to do that day was meet with Linda, so I hung out in the Photo Studio for most of the afternoon. We Photogs are a pretty funny bunch, but that day it felt like the humour was ratcheted up a couple notches, and I was howling with laughter before you could say, "Peter."

It turned out that I had the wrong time written down for my meeting: it was supposed to be in the 2:00 - 3:00 hour, but I had 3:00 - 4:00 written down. However, it was one of those times where just showing up is good enough, as I was one of the few students who actually came to their meetings. I showed her the photos that I'd taken of my experiments, and we decided on the best one, which would be used for the final version.

Tuesday: My independent Photoshop project is to design a business card, and this week I had my rough-draft version critiqued. This isn't the first time I've done a business card--I did one in first-year Photoshop class--but this time around, I wanted to end up with something that I could actually use in real life.

Turns out, the Røde directional mics aren't as nice as we thought they'd be--and as they pick up sound even from the side, they aren't exactly directional. Oh, well--at least we know now.

Wednesday: We've officially hit crunch-time in terms of prep for our Gallery as a Market Place show. It opens in almost three weeks (March sixteenth), but we lose a week due to March Break (the week of March seventh). This week, we did a lot of work in class: writing bios, tweaking descriptions of our work, writing the press release... We'd planned to visit Ingrid Mueller Art + Concepts, but A. we had enough on our own plates, and B. Ingrid had enough on her plate, as there's a show coming up at that gallery.

That afternoon, we presented our research. I talked about what I'd found out about digital portfolios--which ranged from an Adobe Bridge web gallery to a PDF portfolio (note to self: include a title page next time!).

I spent the evening doing prep for my next Still to Motion (Tuesday afternoon) assignment. My plan is to film myself singing some of my favourite songs (I'll be listening to them on my iPod and singing a cappella). As I went through iTunes, picking out pieces, I landed on MPBN radio, which is in my library. I caught the tail-end of Neptune, the Mystic, which is the final movement in The Planets (Pluto hadn't been discovered yet, though because it's now classified as a dwarf planet, I wonder if Holst would include it if he wrote that work today). I listened, and then got back to work. But somehow I ended up back on MPBN--and was treated to the Main Theme from Star Wars. I'd read the Bangor Daily's review of the BSO's last concert, and wished that I could've heard the concert in person, so I was ridiculously excited. Because I hadn't tuned in earlier, I didn't know that it was the BSO until the end of the broadcast, but I knew that they'd performed the Main Theme as an encore thanks to that review, so I immediately started putting two and two together, and thought, "could that possibly be the BSO?" I jumped up and danced around my dorm room, revelling in the sound of one of my favourite orchestras and one of the most beautiful violin sections I've ever heard. The performance was so thrilling, spectacular and beautiful that I cried as I danced (not the first time the BSO's gotten that sort of reaction out of me). A couple times I slowed down in places where I wouldn't normally slow down, as I wanted to take in the beauty of the violin section. After the last chord had faded, and I found out that yes, it was the BSO, I let go and sobbed with indescribable happiness.

After all that, I had to listen to the theme again, so I searched YouTube. I threw in the Imperial March for good measure. Thanks for starting something, BSO! By the way, this was my first time listening to that orchestra on the radio since the 2004 - 2005 season. A lot has changed since then: new concertmaster, new conductor, new logo, new slogan... But that orchestra is still awesome.

Thursday: This week was the final week of our independent projects. For me, that meant that I played teacher for a few minutes. And then Peter and my classmates critiqued the project (I still need to make changes).

During our meeting, Peter and I discussed my next project--and I showed him the file of notes, ideas and resources that I'd been feverishly putting together for the last couple weeks.

Because I wanted to share my experience with her personally, I emailed Lynn (who's the BSO's co-concertmaster), telling her about the night before.

I also printed my photos for the show, and one of my classmates cut mats for me.

That evening, Helen and I had our usual Skype meeting. In between tech problems, we discussed the project that I'm finishing and the one that I'm about to start. She also talked about paintings that she's working on.

Friday: I'd planned to shoot my Still to Motion homework that day, but as one of my classmates signed out the studio's only Zoom H4N mic for the weekend, there went that idea. Hopefully, I'll get it done tomorrow, but if not, then I'll try to double up this week. But because it's something that's completely out of my control, Rod will probably understand.

However, I managed to get other stuff done that day, including starting my log book for Imagery (my Monday class). And I started the final report for the independent project that I'm finishing, and the proposal for the one that I will start after March Break--and got more than a little fired up about it. Watch out, Harper!

Because my last project was so uneventful--there weren't any serious changes or mishaps, just improvements to stuff that was already decent--I had problems getting up to the five-hundred-word mark. So I consulted with Peter, and he came up with some slightly different questions for me to answer.

I also put together the final version of my Imagery assignment.

Saturday: I spent a large chunk of the afternoon researching the ins and outs of combining Photoshop with Final Cut Pro X (I'm going to use Photoshop to give the different segments of my video their look, and then import those videos to Final Cut). I also edited my final report and project proposal, and made smaller versions of my photos for the show (to be used for publicity). And I did it all while listening to opera (Ernani, by Verdi).