Day One, like three days smushed into one

One of the other teachers mentioned tonight that this morning felt like three days ago. It's true! We go into total warp speed here, a strange twilight zone, but a wonderful place of creativity. My students had their first books ready 12 hours after I assigned it to them. This one is by Beth, a super accomplished teacher and artist who has already taken other book classes.

I won't provide the punchline on this, but I love having Ann back in class (she took the first iteration of this class last year). The way she looks at the world and life is so amazing because it's positive without being cheesy or preachy.

Susan told the class last night about our lunch last year when she was in another class and had thought we would be making paper this year. We're not, but she is still having fun!

Another Susan and I had a great convo at dinner last night about her journey back to art after practicing medicine for 17 years; we all loved this beginning to her book.

I had shown everyone Velma's milkweed zine and how she had an image of fiber on the inside of the book. I missed this on Derek's book until I saw another student unfold it. I heard him joking with another student about how much ink he is going to go through this week.

Corinna has been a HUGE help in and out of the classroom, and gave this to me today, from a goose's rib cage. She made this bone folder but didn't know if it would work. I will try it out this week! Today was packed with more structures and techniques than I can count on my fingers, as well as the reminders of how much I learn every time I walk into a classroom (no matter if I am a student, teacher, or fly on the wall). That full day of endless learning continued into the evening with fantastic slide talks by Susan and Craig, who each teach painting this session. I hope that gives me the energy to do all of my follow-up classroom work, prep for tomorrow, and last-minute sculpting of my own lecture for tomorrow. I like knowing that my students will also be working late into the night, in the studio.