I N T H E N I G H T K I T C H E N 10.5.2001
Patheticism So, I forgot to do my homework. Completely. I just waltzed in to class with no clue that there was any kind of homework let alone the kind that was supposed to be finished and mounted on matboard and presented to the class for a critique. Oh well. I just have to make it up and have it in my portfolio at the end of the term. The only thing I really miss out on is the critique which, frankly, is a bit lacking. There's a difference, you see, between a good critique and a bad critique. There's a lot of bad critiquers in the class. I guess I'm not surprised since there's some honest freshmen in there -- people who are 18 and just came off their summer job making pizzas. Not only do they not have a clue but they are embarrassed and afraid of saying the wrong thing and don't think that their opinions are really valid. It's annoying. BAD: I like it because the blue is really pretty. I have to hold my tongue to keep from offering too many ideas and suggestions. I reserve my thoughts for the better pieces and let the kids stumble over their thoughts on the bad stuff. There's a lot of bad stuff but I have been pleasantly surprised over the good stuff. Some of these people have real talent -- jaw-dropping talent. It's moderately inspiring. I do have to start getting to that morning class earlier, though. I keep ending up sitting by the aspiring web designer. I could tell she was annoying from the first day. Well, when I come a bit late, the only place still open is right across from her. She's friendly enough but entirely pathetic. Yesterday, she was nearing hyperventilation because she, too, had not done the homework. "Ohmigod, I can't believe it, I'm totally going to ruin my grade. What am I going to do? Waaaaaaah." I finally told her to chill out that we were just critiquing them and not getting any sort of grade today. Jesus. As we started on the first piece, she was still whimpering to herself and her friend and so when the teacher called on her she didn't know which one we were on. She made a great show of being confused like she was sick or something and then, while she gave a bad critique (see above), she acted like she was going to cry. It was gross and pathetic. The teacher kind of gave a funny look and then called on someone else. I have to get there earlier so I can sit far away from her. I think it is better to loathe someone from a distance rather than right in their face. Plus, she has every little art thing you could possibly want and it's all brand new -- pencils, charcoal, erasers of every kind, paints and watercolors and expensive brushes and pens and it's all pristine and new. Who doesn't hate those people? If I don't move away I'm afraid I may find myself nicking her supplies for every pathetic transgression and accidentally kicking her under the table. Okay, I'm not really going to kick her or steal her stuff. However, patheticism really does brings out my inner bully. Wanna cry? I'll give you something to cry about.... + + + In my afternoon class, we were doing self-portraits. I was pretty horrified to have to sit looking in the mirror for several hours. If I wasn't such a hottie, it would have been worse. *ahem* *cough* Right. I've never done any sort of portraiture. A couple years ago I was playing with watercolor and would draw people from other imagery. The drawings themselves were pretty good, actually. The watercolor wasn't so bad except that I still don't know how to watercolor a face. So, I have these two drawings, one of a little girl in a hat and the other of some Blues man playing sax, finished except for the faces. For my actual first time out trying to do a real face, it wasn't too bad. We did contour drawing and then gesture drawing. I'm pretty good at the contour stuff and I enjoy it. It's a great exercise for warming up to a drawing and getting familiar with your subject. The gesture drawing is a whole other thing. Basically, as far as I can tell, the point of the gesture drawing is to get the general shape and mood of your subject. You outline areas of tension and resistance. It's not supposed to be an accurate rendering of the subject but an idea of what and how your subject is. They tend to look really messy and unfinished. At the end of the class, the teacher came up to me and praised me for "getting" the gesture concept after she did some examples in front of me. That was pretty cool. I think I'm going to learn a lot from her. You should know, though, that patheticism abounds in this class, too. "Your's looks so good, mine looks so bad" is the equivalent of saying "I'm soo fat!" The only answer you're allowed to give is, "No, it looks fine." Which is just stupid. If you ever take a craft class or any other kind of class and you think your work is sub-par then try harder. Sheesh. Damn kids. 10.1.2001
Observation Peak Revisited Two years ago we did this hike and it was beautiful but cold. I've been wanting to go back ever since and we finally did yesterday and it was warm and sunny and we all got some color in our cheeks. On top we could see St. Helens with barely a speck of snow on her, Adams, Rainier, Mt. Hood and far off in the distance, Jefferson. There was not a cloud in the sky and we had the whole trail and view to ourselves. Re-reading that old entry, I now remember that one of the things which was so cool about Observation Peak was the closeness of the clouds. This time, however, it was the view and the sunshine. T. and I went up with Lonnie and Lawrence. I almost begged off in the morning as I had been up very late the night before drinkin' and smokin' and talkin'. Plus, I didn't want to race the guys up the hill. Lawrence and T. had also spent the greater part of the day before sampling whisky so we weren't the steadiest group to charge to great heights. It turned out to be okay, though, and at times I lagged back far enough to have total silence around me. Silence is an interesting thing. It takes me awhile to get used to silence. It's almost like my brain interpretes it as a can't-hear thing rather than there's-nothing-to-hear here thing. A bit of fear kicks in that something will happen. It's so odd. I find myself glancing behind me just to make sure there's no silent thing stalking me. After a few minutes, though, I can calm down and listen to the sound of my breathing and my footsteps and the breeze through the trees. It is nice to be alone. There's two viewpoints along the way that are pretty decent. The top is the best, a nearly 360 degree view of the Columbia River Gorge area and, of course, five mountain peaks. There seemed to be more logging visable than before but barely any other signs of humanity. After lunch, I spread out my jacket and lay down and stared at Mt. Hood for awhile and then just put my arm over my eyes and felt the sun soak in and listened to the wind. After awhile, it felt like I was floating.  The climb up there is not too bad, though there are some steep sections that take some muscling through. I was very pleased with myself as the last time we did this hike we were only just beginning to get outdoors and do this kind of thing. At the second viewpoint which is about 400 feet from the top, I was begging T. to let us stop there for lunch and rest. I remember that my legs were screaming. This time, there was none of that. I was tired at that spot but not ready to stop. It's nice to know, concretely, that I have changed. If you live somewhere near here and want to do this hike, here's the details:
I took some pictures of the peaks with my digital camera but who knows when I'll get around to downloading them. Today, I have homework to do so I better go and do it! 
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