First Batch of Homework

My Birthday is going well so far! It's the one day a year that I actually LOVE Facebook, too.

I found the local Co-op and got brown rice sushi for lunch (it was yummy!) and lots of little cupcakes to bring to class. Years ago, at a different art school - I ate a Hostess cupcake alone. In NYC. I swore - as God was my witness (and a few bums near Gramercy park) - that I would never eat a cupcake alone on a birthday again. Likewise - I always celebrate birthdays. The number doesn't matter, but the fact that I'm still here, does. [I was told by doctors, when I was 12, that I wouldn't live past 25, or have kids].

So I stopped by the Tip Top cafe to get reservations for dinner and picked up the pottery that Lilah and I painted a month ago. I'm counting this as a birthday present from my kid!

If you are having trouble figuring it out... it's a group of happy bunnies frolicking in the setting sun (notice the very dark woods!) One bunny is lying on his back with tiny feet in the air. And the dark spot is the entrance to their house (burrow).

Homework... I finished these facial expressions (late) last night. Can you tell? ;-)

I can't remember which homework is for which class anymore. I have giant post-its on the wall to try and keep track of everything. We were given three slips of paper - one animal, one emotion, and one job. We were to 1. Observe and imagine what it is like to be that animal. 2. Inhabit their body 3. Simplify it all.

My sketches...

Then we were to create a character that would express all three of the traits. No background. I don't consider the cage a background, but part of the character.

Can you figure out what the three words were that I got? (Clue: they're on the sketch.)

This one was tough - we are creating a Facebook (a book of faces) - like a yearbook for the new First Year students. The right hand page will be silkscreened (we're learning that today) in two colors and should be our portrait. The left hand page will be photocopied and must be our Autobiography. We could type it, hand-letter, draw... anything so long as it fits into a 9 box grid with a big margin on all sides.

I agonized over this!! I even emailed my sister, my dad, and my son asking for advice. They all pointed out that I don't want to hold on to the yuck - the baggage, it's a fresh start - I can tell them anything. No one knows my story here, so what do I want to tell them? What's important? Not show-off-y. Not putting myself down...

I had a lot of ideas about my successes like balloons and the problems as heavy suitcases. Everything seemed to have the idea of jumping. Leaps of faith?

The last image is a sketch for my portrait - that's due next week. But I kept simplifying the idea until I got to the bottom, middle one. The most important thing I wanted people to know about me - I had felt like I was trapped. On a ledge. In a box. With a fox. (sorry, couldn't resist!)

Sometimes stuff just happens. And it REALLY sucks. You get trapped. There seems to be only one choice.

But if you have a good imagination, can change yourself, and are willing to take a risk - there's always another option.