Classes Begin (sort of)

Well the weekend was nice here. The international students took a trip to St. Andrews on Saturday. it was wet and windy and the sort of "dampened" the enjoyment but I did manage to have some great conversation by the water with two Finnish girls and Julien. We all ordered fish and chips at this little hole in the water place, but it actually turned out to be delicious. I noticed again, no one has their dog on a leash here! it's so weird!

So classes have officially begun. Everything is still in the air and most of the week has just been dedicated to stocking up on some materials, brainstorming and decorating my studio spot but I met my tutor and other students in and around my studio and that was nice.

My new pal, MB or Mcbeth showed me and morgy around to the Tayside Recycler building. it's like a double decker warehouse full of amazing things. For columbians, it would be comparable to the habitat for humanity store but bigger and with more knick knack type stuff. there was clothing, kitchen stuff, art, bedding, paper, tools, electronics, furniture, books, crafts and much more!

I found five cool books, tons of spare fabric, a giant chunk of nicely shaped wood, three plates, a blanket, two wooden carved birds, a cheese grater (something i tend to need like every day) a lot of old wall paper with great textures and patterns, some wrapping paper and a lot of scraps for sketching and projects.

I have nothing to do tomorrow but I will be going to my studio and trying to get my creative flow flowin' like the nile.

I am trying to find my "artistic identity" and it's a lot more difficult to do than i thought. I feel like i'm an artist but i don't always know for sure. I don't feel like i belong to any other tribe, but there's always that "maybe i don't have it in my genes feeling" too.

I honestly don't work on "art" as much as i should for sheer pleasure. I don't know if that's because I have more pressing things to do back home like work or if i don't think i can do something successful in my time frame or what, but that is changing right NOW!

I am realizing in dundee that I am an artist. I am just now really beginning to find myself because I have the time and the abundant resources and motivation to work on my ideas and myself. When your handed an assignment in the states, it's fairly easy to come up with an idea for that project, here however everything is self paced and self encouraged. I could just do whatever I feel like and I am sure that would be fine. On the other hand I want to come back to Columbia with mad skills and I finally want to really like what i do!

Tomorrow I will composite some more solid ideas for beginning a clearer theme. My theme thus far is usually a sympathy towards unfortunate or comical figures. That will continue to work it's way but hopefully get even clearer.

I plan on doing some collage work, printmaking and painting and hopefully some wood burning too. the materials here are free so i have no reason not to take advantage of them. this will be my first official printmaking course so i'm stoked about mastering the technique... or at least understanding it!

Morgan and Julien inspire me every day. tonight Jules and I went to a free lecture. In Columbia, i would never want to go to a lecture in my spare time. I just thought, hey why not. It was interesting. This american psychologist came to speak about an experiment dealing with how British / American eyes see words and faces differently to how Chinese people see them. the conclusion is that we do see things differently: a span of words, the way we gaze at text and where we focus first when we see a photograph, but it isn't a cultural difference, it is a writing difference due to language. some parts flew over my head and some parts i found relative and interesting. i still probably don't know what i'm talking about fully, but I would have never gone to this somewhat interesting discussion if I wasn't told about it today. I totally overlook this stuff in my student emails because i would typically ignore them back home. Thankfully I have two genius friends who enjoy learning and taking time to explore things that i never really do. I feel very lucky to be in this circle. it makes me want to be a better person in general.

I have such a routine back home and here everything is changing. I love it here!

enjoy some pictures. the DCA - Dundee Contemporary Arts exhibit. you can go into this room and play songs on a juke box dealing with different issues and wars. There is a civil rights selection, feminism selection and so on and so forth. I chose Beyonce's "Who run the world" it was amusing to me, but Julien felt uncomfortable. some interior shots from the recycle center, morgan and i's feet, some sketches of my dad, mom and phil and some more from st. andrews.

Enjoy!