Time is passing and spring is on the way

If you get a poodle you will never be bored.

Time is passing, spring is coming, the sun is out sometimes, and the nettles are growing. It’s been an oddly busy and dull time.

I finished an amazing class (I will write more about) with Diana Markosian, through ICP. I loved the class, and the other students work was gorgeous. I am thrilled to be interacting with people who love photography and love to talk about it. It was a six week class and I wish it lasted longer. Our guest speakers were phenomenal and inspiring, and hearing more about Diana’s work, and her artistic practice was inspiring.

I just started a class with Keisha Scarsville and Jeanette Spicer, also through ICP, and WOW…I’m so excited! Week one excited, yes, but the whole class outline is thrilling. Where the last class was about intimacy and getting messy to get something real, this class is about concept, subtlety, and grace, and taught by two bold bad asses that I can’t wait to learn more from. Very much more theory, but also lots of assignments. My first assignment draft is done (nothing about a poodle) but I have time to revise it prior to critique.

I think classes are really cheering me up and helping me reframe what I do, and helping me see where I want to go, where I’ve been going…and the classes wouldn’t have happened without the pandemic, so it’s an odd twist of fortune in a dark time. I’ve felt the whole pandemic like it’s the perfect time to create and loaf but also it’s felt like limbo, and trash, and scary, and dull…so having things to do is helping, and having creative things to do is really helping.

I got an emergency grant a while back for cultural workers (artists) and it also inspired me to keep my mind in the game, and I’ve been taking more pictures. Cultural workers…I kind of like the term, because all of us artists, whatever the form it takes, are making something important…maybe the value isn’t seen in individuals work at a certain time, but at least collectively I hope that we can all respect it…this is what keeps us going, brings us back, makes us US, and it’s the glue in our communities, and our humanity.

Also I’m watching Westworld for the first time, and thoroughly enjoying it. So that’s all I’ve got for tonight, tiny updates from my tiny outpost.