Art-Related Activities

• January 19th, 2005 • 0 Comments • jobs, texas •

For five or six years now, I have been writing papers for academics. It’s been all very comfortable for me and I am quite good at it. I can whip up a good art essay and scrawl down several pages of pure genius in a few hours. Dear me though, this has taken a turn for the worse now that I am faced with the formidable; a cover letter. [Cue dramatic music here.] Mentioning that I am in training to become an art teacher in the State of Texas seems to have escaped the scope of this journal. For those who don’t know, if one has a Bachelor Degree in Texas one is qualified to go through an alternative certification program to become a teacher. I made the decision to go through an “alt-cert” program a few months ago; orientation for the whole shebang was last night. My resume has been re-polished for someone looking for an art teacher (as opposed to someone looking for a printmaker) which came out swimmingly, but I’ll be damned if I could figure out how to write a decent cover letter.

I know what not to write; a friend of mine who has experience wading through hundreds of letters at a time brought one up; “Hi! My name is Candi!!” it began. Oh dear. I think poor Candi was thrown into file thirteen. Everyone with half a brain cell knows not to be a “Candi” but how does one avoid being “Joe Average?” The purpose of the cover letter is to lure the reader into reading your resume. It’s as if I am making a bowl of porridge: can’t make the reader feel stupid, can’t make the reader feel I’m stupid, it must be just write. (Oh, who could resist that pun?)

My philosophy on art I attempted to sum up in one sentence: “Art is about becoming aware of the visual world at large and making connections between visual problems and solutions in that world.” Now I’m faced with a problem about making a connection; how do I make this statement relate to myself personally? Connection. Critical thinking. Problem-Solving. Too easily I am flooded with words I feel I must use. Unfortunately, the little boogers won’t form a cohesive paragraph for me. Humph.

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No wonder I can’t get down to the studio. Recently, I started volunteering as a docent at the DeGolyer House at the Dallas Arboretum. If you’re ever in Dallas visit the house! It was home to an absolutely fascinating individual, Mr. Everette Lee DeGolyer. Sadly, the Arboretum’s website is mum on the topic of the house museum, which is on the National Register of Historical Places. Smack in the middle of Dallas, the DeGolyer mansion is a house museum of un-comparable quality, not to mention the fact that it still retains about 80-90% of it’s original furnishings. 17th century tapestries and 18th century furnishings abound inside; it’s a rare jewel that deserves more respect than it gets.

Regardless, I insist on being thorough in my tour notes. In addition to sifting through the pages and pages of history (most of it provided by DeGolyer grandson Peter Maxson) I started reading Mr. De by Lon Tinkle. At the risk of being cliche, one word: fascinating. The link I provided above to a short biography only skims the surface of how influential and amazing Mr. De was. True aficianados of Texas and/or oil history will marvel at how one man helped to shape so much of the industry. It’s the little niches of history that end up really interesting!

Cleaning and Reading

• January 12th, 2005 • 0 Comments • meandering •

Whew! The Christmas holiday is long behind me, so life goes back to normal in the studio. Honestly, there was reasoning behind my not updating entries during the holidays: I was screen-printing t-shirts for my family and friends. Couldn’t spoil the surprise now, could we! That was my present to myself: a screen-printing kit and teaching myself the basics of the craft. Sadly, I did not take any pictures documenting my endeavors but hope to with an upcoming project involving two of my friends who also wish to learn the basics of serigraphy. (Hopefully, photos will follow of what I actually accomplished over the holidays!)

The weather immediately following Christmas has been unseasonably warm, even for Texas. We’ve experienced highs in the70s (!) and lovely breezy days. Obviously the perfect opportunity to overhaul and clean the studio was presented and I seized it. Now it’s clean, well-swept, and ready for makin’ stuff. Currently I’m re-painting an old lamp a lovely pea-green for myself and re-framing an old pastel drawing belonging to an uncle; that big pile on the “dirty” workbench is a big project I’m gearing up for.

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I have almost finished reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss. It proclaims itself a “Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” which I think is fabulous. Admittedly I’m not the best at punctuating; I often get carried away using commas. When I’ve completed this interesting little book I hope to compare some of its claims with my own typographic/printing know-how. (Though I’m quite upset - I seem to have lost one of my more valuable typography books - hopefully it’s hiding at my parents’ house.)