holy cats! i'm coming home in 3 weeks!

Today is the first day of Thanksgiving break. Tomorrow is the actual day of turkey here, and Friday is "Black Friday" because everyone is off work & it's retail mayhem. The stores open at 5 a.m., some of them are advertising ticket line-ups starting at 2 a.m. - America is weird.

I have been invited to dinner tomorrow & am heading down to Mississippi on Friday for a photo shoot (and hopefully leftovers). Before Monday I have a project list to complete that seems longer than my arm. I am also bird sitting a lovely parrot named Olive.

Sleep is for the weak.

The semester has be extremely busy - I have had more assigned reading this one semester than I have had in my three years at ACAD.

I'm not complaining - this semester has been amazing in ways I wasn't expecting. I have met great people and learned things I wouldn't have at home. There has been an inter-connectedness between the theory and practical things I have been learning that has impacted the course of my work and will continue to when I get home. The luxury of spending four months focusing on nothing but myself and my work has been a tremendous experience that I am grateful for.

None of this would have been possible without the support of my family and friends - thank you.

fall break

In October, MCA experiences 'Fall Break'. It is two days off (Monday & Tuesday) making a super-long & theoretically restful weekend following midterms (which as an aside, A on my Art History midterm - go me!). Many of my classmates went home to places like Arkansas and Louisiana, but I stayed here. Among trips to Crafts for Christ (aka Hobby Lobby) and Target, was a visit to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Originally the home of Margaret and Hugh Dixon, they purchased the property with the intention of having it become a museum to benefit the people of Memphis. Opened in 1976, it was initially a showcase for the Dixon's personal collection of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, it has grown to include over 2000 paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and decorative arts objects. On view the weekend I was there was Lichtenstein in Process, "drawings, collages, and sketchbooks, offering an intimate look at Lichtenstein's working methods and creative process." Carry Me! Lucite Handbags from the Caryn Sheidt Collection, as well as selections from the permanent collection - there was an exquisite Cassat. The formal gardens were also lovely.

Hallowe'en

Even though I did not participate - because & am old & lame, the Student Alliance at MCA threw a party at a great local art space called VINI (five in one - give it a minute, you'll get it). There were several great costumes at my house, but my favourite was Funlola as Angela Davis, and not only because I suggested it.

Awesome costumes at school were the Sumo wrestler (you go, Big Nick) and Hunter S. Thompson. Or rather Jonny Depp as Hunter S. in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - down to the crazed look in his eye and dead on vocals.

and we're back

At the beginning of October, I went to a conference in Toronto (o.k., the conference was in Markham, but it's Toronto adjacent). One of the highlights (aside from the fantastic food), was Nuit Blanc - the annual all night art festival in Toronto. It was exciting to see that many people out looking at art. On of the stand outs was Jeff Koons' piece hanging from the ceiling of the Eaton Centre shopping mall - it was the perfect setting for a piece of his.

WHOO! CRIT!

hmm... 

the good:

an installation of balloons and psychedelic collages of image and sound.

a reliquary made of a small glass box with a translucent photo cover, containing personal artifacts suspended on hooks

three law books hollowed out with exploded images of vintage cameras tied into the pages, that you could still flip

the bad:

the "put a pony in it" approach to critique

the ugly:

work was presented that was ill conceived and horribly executed, and the maker was completely shocked that we called them on it, and left the class (pronouns have been confused to protect the guilty)

Overall an interesting (if long) day of discussion of three dimensional or installation work of varying levels of success.

**the image is work in progress on my piece - untitled (fish/fowl) - why yes, that is a bottle of Mod Podge

not drowning, but waving

This week has whooshed past - I am in the thick of it now - first crits are next week. I'm exploring ideas around belonging and place in my studio work, and history of photography and womens' studies have me hip deep in the "Other".  

I love school.

weird ass bugs

Of course I've heard of cicadas, but I'd never heard cicadas until I came here. They are huge and alien and loud and generally freak me the hell out. 

My first cicada 'experience' was in New Orleans - they make a noise that we thought was the power lines doing something weird. There are even more of them in Memphis. Imagine a chicken egg, then put wings on it and have it fly around like a demented bumble bee and make a noise that sounds a little bit like screaming. The only saving grace is that the don't bite or sting or pinch or lay eggs in your ear...I think.

Don't get me started on the cockroaches...or chiggers - here they come again, the jibblies.

Yes, the picture is blurry and its wing is cut off. It was as close as I was willing to get, and I didn't stay for very long.

What more? How about this? Or this? Wait! this will make it better! Ok, maybe just weirder, but it took your mind off the scary bugs, didn't it?

PANTS!

I wore pants today! Huzzah! Why am I using exclamation marks?! Because it was a brisk 25 degrees celsius today! And I may have had too much sugar!

At any rate, it brings me to a topic I swore to myself I would not talk about to others, either in person, on the phone, or via the interweb, yet am seemingly obsessed with - and talking to everyone about - the weather. 

It's hot y'all.

Really hot...and humid...relentlessly hot and humid. Sticky is the right word. My poor pasty Canadian body is having a hard time adapting. I wear hats constantly, and have resigned myself to being sweaty until I get home in December. 

Everyone who lives here is telling me that this has been an unseasonably cool summer/early fall.  Gah.

There are days when I am immobilized by the heat. I have a bike, but can't ride it sometimes because it is too hot. Relief is coming, I'm told. It plummets down to the low 20s in late October. 

Did I mention I live in the attic? The non-insulated, un-air conditioned attic? There is some humour I'm sure in the lone Canadian on campus living in one of the hottest places on campus, but I'm having trouble seeing it through the mist. 

about that southern charm

I spent today about an hour and a half south of here in a town called Oxford, Mississippi. It is beautiful, has historic charm, a relaxed and genteel atmosphere, and a fantastic bookstore. Home to William Faulkner, and John Grisham (who also got his law degree here), Oxford is a town of 19,000, if you don't count the 60,000 that come to watch the NCAA football games. The games are played at the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss as it is commonly and lovingly known. But as with many parts of the south, there is a complicated history here. In 1962, James Meredith became the first African-American student at Ole Miss. The governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, stood at the door of the university, and would not allow Meredith to pass. In the resulting riots, two people were killed, and Meredith had two federal marshalls with him 24 hours a day for the two years he attended the university. 

I struggle with that history and how it manifests itself today. I saw almost no one in Oxford that wasn't white, and Memphis is one of the most segregated places anywhere. I think about priviledge, entitlement and the Other, in relation to me and my work. My time here is part of that process.

southern charm

I'm not sure if I have just been lucky, but everyone I have met here has been gracious to a fault. And not in that "I'm being nice, but I really don't care if you live or die" sort of way, either. 

When people ask how I'm doing, they really want to know.  I asked a group of people where I could buy a bike, and someone said "I've got one in my shed you can have", and then she drove me & the bike to the repair shop to have it tuned up. Everyone says please and thank you. I get called 'hon' and 'm'am'. If I need advice on what to see or where to go to get something (ok, mostly it's been bbq), I have people writing me lists, and offering to take me. 

I had in my head an idea of what Memphis was going to be like - highly romantic, bordering on sentimental, I'm sure - but in terms of southern charm, it's exceeding my expectations. 

not better or worse, just different

No, that's not MCA - it's Rhodes College just on the other side of Overton Park. It's part of the "Consortium" that includes all of the private post secondary schools in Memphis (there are six). As an MCA student, I can use the library (pictured here), the gym, the pool, and if it worked with my schedule, any of their classes, for no additional tuition and the credits would transfer no problem. 

No additional tuition is a bit disingenuous. The yearly tuition here is $22,000 a year. It's one of the least expensive art schools in the US.

So why does MCA have the largest enrollment in their history, taken from the greatest number of applications ever? I think it's because of the faculty. As at ACAD, all of the instructors (they are professors here) are practicing artists, or publishing authorities in their fields. Most have a least one graduate degree, many have two. And they are committed to not only their own work, but that of their students. Attendance is a serious matter here, miss three classes and you lose a letter grade. Late assignments lose a letter grade every day (including weekend days) they are late - that's studio and liberal study work.  The largest class I'm in is History of Photo and there are 25 of us; my biggest studio class has 15, my smallest 9. So, even though I have dropped into third year (I mean 'Junior') classes, my professors know me, and have time to spend. 

The other thing I am finding very satisfying about my MCA experience is the amount of theory/conceptual readings and discussions that happen, in class and out. I have more required textbooks and reading this semester then in my three years at ACAD. 

I just have to figure out how to get them home - and the puppet theatre.

BBQ

I believe that in order to truly experience a place, you need to eat its food. In Memphis, that means bbq - specifically bbq'd pork - even more specifically bbq'd pulled pork. Within 12 hours of arriving in Memphis, we went to Top's BBQ and had pulled pork sandwiches (with slaw on them), slaw as a side and fries. It was so good, I didn't have time to take a picture, we just inhaled it. The picture you see is of the bbq pulled pork at Central BBQ (Central Ave location). Pete and I loved the regular bbq sauce (which they make themselves), but also enjoyed the hot and mustard versions.  The BBQ Shop was the next stop on the Memphis BBQ tour (please pick up your commemorative bibs at the gift shop on your way out). Recommended to me by Gadsby (coordinator of Career Services, MCA, also bike patron - that story coming soon), I rode my bike up to Madison for lunch, and ran into Katey (Assistant Director of Admissions, MCA), so I knew I was in the right place. This time the pulled pork was on Texas Toast. 

Here's what I think so far - best sauce is at Central, best slaw and sweet tea is a the BBQ Shop, best overall southern bbq experience (or at least what my romantic Canadian view of that) was at Tops. They were all great, and I would (probably will) eat at any/all of them again. 

But, I've only been here a month, so the rankings will change, I'm sure. 

Next post will be about school, I promise!

Four weeks

I have been on the ground for four weeks today. It seems minutes and years since I left home. Memphis is different and similar to what I was expecting. 

People who live here have said to me "You could go anywhere & you came here? Why?"

That is the question.

Some answers are forthcoming.