demos demos demos

I have been quiet on the blogging front. For good reason. Things have been intense lately. My father passed away not too long ago and I have been struggling with everything. Certain aspects of my day-to-day have been moving in slow motion while many other things are moving at light speed. I am having a hard time finding the energy or motivation to do anything. With a billion things happening at once, my head has been spinning. Unfortunately, life keeps moving with or without you. 

I need a break. 

Fortunately/unfortunately we have had an unprecedented amount of snow days here at Appstate.  Classes keep getting canceled.  As a matter of fact I think if you teach a Tuesday/Thursday studio we have missed five classes due to snow!  That, on top of the days I have missed being back home it makes it hard to catch up. So in an attempt to cover some information/time lost I have been frantically uploading demos to the class blog. 

Just as a side note I find it funny that some students, not all, tend to think that if class is canceled because of snow, you don't have to do anything thing for the rest of the semester.  Class was only canceled on that one day people! You still have the rest of the week to come in and work!  The studio is open eight hours a day, seven days a week not just on Tuesday and Thursdays from 8:00 - 11:00! 

This semester I am teaching Enameling, Metals 1 and Digital Fabrication for Studio Arts.  Getting the students motivated has been tough.  Without guidance they tend to flounder.  I don't blame them.  When you are a one person area there is an vacuum when the leader goes missing.  The advanced students have been stepping up to do demonstrations which has been amazing.  I just wish I could be there to help.