the royal wedding two unexpected guests....

 

 What excitement !  We have had two visitors appear  here in Appartment B, before getting their beauty sleep for the royal wedding  .... how kind!  We have taken our duties seriously, worn the masks kindly presented to me by my colleagues at Portsmouth , just in case I missed out ! and bunting supplied by my dear niece Flora. What fun we had running backwards and forwards to get in shot. The photo I love the best is "Prince William" le Croix  rampaging  through the flowers what a hoot  ! Sante ! 

wise words

We said there were some great words around Savannah we are trying to capture the beer signs
this is the first one we noticed!

student work

For anyone who is familiar with teaching in British Universities there is a system of developing ideas,creativity and productivity and all this can evolve slowly and surely over a period of three years and maybe a life time. Savannah has brought to me a different philosophy of process and I am learning to understand what this entails. I am, I know from the first set of works I have marked, that I am working on another planet ! it is neither right nor wrong just different and we are all working together to understand a language that for me helps to make successful, forward thinking illustrators, educated, socially and culturally aware with a breadth of intellectual and practical skills. We have had some challenging discussions and beautiful work, I fight with sketchbooks but we are getting there!
A well worked project which never fails to have beautiful outcomes which Kate Dicker kindly shared with me at Portsmouth, Mechanical Animals has evolved and developed into some masterful three dimensional beasties. We had them marching down the stairs at Morris Hall ! I was so bowled over with these I bought them !

Its nearly Easter

This is the first year since I can remember that I have not had an Easter Egg! Mike returned with a bar of cadburys fruit and nut in the vain hope it would suffice, I have a small row of "peeps" chickens in my cupboard, but with all the madness and routine of work at SCAD , I have felt strangely isolated from the usual excitement of something that features heavily at St Ursula Grove Southsea, Easter ! Please bite those eggs for me ! It is heightened by the fact that all my nearest and dearest are in Joigny, France, celebrating my youngest sister's birthday, she shares St George's Day and Shakespeare's birthday all rolled in to one . My twin is a past master at welcoming parties, she has made and hung paper bunting from the rooftops, easter eggs drip in the trees and I know I will be missing the egg hunt round the garden on Sunday morning. I cannot believe its a year ago we spoke with Savannah students in Paris and here we actually are!
I did manage to see real chickens this morning, it is Earth day in the United States and the whole of Savannah and their dogs descended on Forsyth Park to deposit old tins of paint and anything difficult to dispose of. The day slowly heated up and we were forced to the beach once again, beautifully sunny a cool breeze and I sketched the southern blackbird , with its peep peep peep,peep, peeep.......... I realised I needed to do so much more. An ant crawled into my ear for three minutes it felt like a roaring white noise rampaging around my head, thankfully it came out, squashed by my manic digging,sadly it had reached its demise.

We have had our lovely friend Lynn Cannici from Boston stay with us for a few days, Lynn is a fabulous ceramicist and gave us a great selection of bowls to increase our crockery collection, we at last have something to serve the salad from. Evenings have been jazzed up with dancing in the kitchen drinking pomegranate martinis whilst stirring the sauces, the recipe is a magical secret and makes the sunset go down as delightfully as the cocktail! We have regaled in yard sales and added to the silver collection which Mike seems to be hooked on ! He is now the proud owner of the most ornate champagne bucket in the world with a liner ! He has spent all weekend polishing and cleaning it up to its original beautiful state and we have christened it with a bottle. Mike has been using all his guiding skills and we have found the best way to see Savannah is by night in a hearse with the lovely Louis on a haunted ghost tour. Being up high and with the running commentary of which ghost is where the houses with their gas lamps and lit windows take on another dramatic dimension. I got my foot stuck in the hearse and thought I was being well and truly held on to by the other side.

Musings with the camera

Noticing the inconsequential at home and around Savannah there are some wierd and wonderful things seen through the camera lens, the finger by our dustbin made us begin to wonder if we had moved into the wrong end of town!
The writer in the window was a talented and delightful young woman called Lauren DeRosa who has been sitting in the window of my favourite shop the Paris Market & Brocante www.the parismarket.com since February responding to the day via her portable typewriter on a Friday and Saturday. I asked if she would write something about creative inspiration and she kindly did. I used the piece to encourage my graduate students to respond to it for visual personal promotion , I loved what she wrote and take the liberty to share with you her text:
“ Some people say that love or sex or money make the world go ‘round’ but creative inspiration has to be a cog in the wheels somewhere. – All the rises and falls of empires, all the new ideas, the great paintings, the grand architectures and take the Taj Mahal for instance…even if love be the point of departure, creative inspiration is the vehicle that gets it done – its this high thermal on which things travel, like a spirit or a holy, sacred ghost, it’s a beautiful kind of wispiness
People can also sometimes complain that their well of inspiration has run dry.
This is really just a signal that the person has been standing in one place for too long and been looking at things the same way for too long. BUT I understand …. In such a situation it’s best to let the mind go. Give it a day off and let /set your thoughts loose as tendrils in the atmosphere and let it bring back its own treasures.”

Lauren de Rosa The Writer in the Window 4 – 8 -11

Observations and Getting by

Teaching is still a huge challenge keeping ahead of the day and the syllabus and making sure I know what I am doing on the right day at the right place at the right time. I cannot help but make comparisons to the UK system and particularly Portsmouth.
The model is similar but so different, the one thing I like is the ability for students to move across disciplines with a greater ease as a form of elective. Skills are fundamental to know and then be able to have the confidence to fly with it. I am still trying to get my head round what is a sophomore , a junior or a freshman !

We visited the SCAD ( Savannah College of Art and Design ) Graduate Fair at the International Conference Centre , to see what was on offer, it was an extraordinary and fascinating sight , over a hundred stalls for students to visit , show portfolios , make contacts and look for internships and jobs. I loved observing the beautifully designed young men and women clutching portfolios eager and nervous to make their mark. We chuckled as a young man exited the centre in his sharp spanking new cream suit , a black shirt and tie and proceeded to put back his piercings and light up a cigarette! The extra bonus is the free ferry service on the susie king taylor that takes you across the river on a magical water tour of three stops to get a fabulous view of the river front.

The shipping news

An exciting week the shipping has finally arrived at Fort Wentworth , a huge container port up the river several miles from the city centre. After days of frustration trying to locate its whereabouts Mike dashed down in the quest to try and pay the dues and retrieve the little amount of home we decided to bring with us. The palette was dismantled and the men in the container port for $20.00 helped shoehorn it all in to the car, a much cheaper solution than our first quote of several hundred dollars. Our books, which had all been opened and inspected by custom control , paintings, too many clothes, a small portion of my studio and Mike's cameras are now unpacked and subsumed into our new home. Interestingly with our vivid green walls and the crisp granite work surfaces our clunky bowls and garish jugs seem sadly out of place, I have spent many an hour pottering around moving and shifting each piece and deciding it has to go in the cupboard. I am curious as to what I don't miss, the books are the best companions to be reunited with, like old friends which have helped me be inspired and teach, lying on the sofa just having the rackety bookcase filled and the coffee table bursting with a few piles has made me very contented.

Favourite Girls

My two favourite girls at Selvedge Fair Saturday 2nd April where Emily was invited to exhibit at St Augustine's Hall London UK
A great day by all accounts ......

Mother's Day

This weekend as many of you know was Mothers Day in the UK, it is not until May in the USA . Imagine my surprise this weekend as I am buying materials in the local college art shop my mobile rings and a woman asks if this is a mrs jackqueeline? I am writing it as it may sound, "we have a flooring delivery " I start to protest I haven't ordered any flooring when she reitierates "Floral mam!"
What was so extraordinary was she was prepared to wait while we hurtled back to get the delivery, a vase filled to the brim with snapdragons and roses and smelling of spring.The message read Happy Mothers Day followed by "Mummys put their feet up "lots of love Emily xxx (this was what Emily had written when she was a little girl, we had kept the card to to remind us it was allowed ! ) Her first bunch of flowers was just coming to an end along with the beautiful welcoming pot of blue hyacinths given to us by Allan and Gaye Drummond, I have to say as I carried them up the step I burst in to tears and wanted to wake up in St Ursula Grove on Sunday morning.
We drove out ten miles south of Savannah to the Isle of Hope first settled in, in the 1840's as a summer resort for the wealthy. It still has that feel, known as a showcase of antebellum life. We saw oodles of signs for yard sales and realised sadly we had missed our chance, however as we plodded along the lanes spied a lady packing up who was happy for us to rummage through her last remnants before they headed off to the Goodwill Store. Imagine our delight to find a silver plated jug that has cleaned up beautifully thanks to Mike's hard efforts and serves as a perfect ice bucket for a good rose wine we have found at the local supermarket.

first week teaching

The first week of teaching has been and gone and I am only just feeling slightly more relaxed after the most manic of days where I have been running from pillar to post wondering what an earth I am doing.
Day one it poured with rain, in a strange way it suited my apprehensive mood and I felt more at home trudging in with a bag of materials than if the sun was shining. It certainly is a more structured way of delivering which I am enjoying as I like to get my hands dirty and watch ideas move quickly, it may take me longer though than I realise to get in to the pace. Trying to organise my syllabus, teach, set homework ! has, as my dad would say been a challenge, but I am getting there slowly, though performing from 2pm to 7.30pm has taken some getting used to !
I had my first faculty meeting, I had to stand up and be greeted in a huge converted school hall as a newcomer with eight others, waving seemed odd a bit like the queen, but appeared to be the protocol, my colleagues in Illustration cheered from the balcony, there are 13 of us in total I think and a kind, funny bunch of people who love a beer, it cannot be bad! More about Illustration to come later. I have a note on my desk "Welcome to the Party !" I think its going to be a good one.
Mike has been wonderful and I know without him the adjustments would have been so much harder, he has not ceased to amaze me with his calm way of getting us bank accounts, installing the internet, buying a car, ordering utensils which make our lives a little easier and waiting with anticipation as the packages get delivered by the delightfully happy UPS girl.
I now know what it's like to have a wife ! I am lovingly taken to work and duly picked up in the evening , Mike has been to the supermarket and a beautiful meal is cooking as we arrive home, what more can a girl wish for! It will all change when my bike arrives and I can pedal to work.
I am writing this at 3.30am in the morning as I am unable to sleep, the rain is lashing against the windows, a severe weather warning was issued last night , it has arrived with the classic booming and crashing which I love , days get very hot, the wind picks up and then the storms come, strangely in the calmness in between , the dawn chorus has begun ............