1. Bowling Alleys!Once again the Elk's lodge forces its influence upon my life. I spend more hours a week there than in class, so it's no wonder I have this annoying obsession. So there is a bowling alley in the basement. Six lanes, post WWII automatic pin setter machines, oh and you have to keep score by hand. The bowling alley is my own personal bar. I practically run it. No one likes to work down there or even go into the place as it's in the basement and I think it scares people. But I love it. The day I saw the alleys at the Elk's I vowed to make them mine. And here I am. Working in the bowling alley has given me a bizarre set of absolutely useless skills as far as the real world is concerned. I know how to oil the lanes by hand, clean the lanes, perform general maintenance on the machines and fix most minor break downs. All this out of necessity. The machines are old. They are like my six finicky children. Like the printing presses, they must be loved and caressed just right so that they perform as they should.
Anyway, there are plenty of visually interesting things about the alleys: the way they move, the sounds they make, the simple operations all working together in these complicated machines.
Oh, and although I can fix an AMF automatic pinsetter manufactured nearly half a century ago, I can barely bowl over 100. Priorities I guess.
2. Elementary School
Recently I have been completing my EDUC 242 classroom observations at Horace Mann elementary school. It is less than a block from my apartment and is so super fun. Although I hate waking up in the morning to go to school, I have not had a bad day at school yet. Elementary students are totally hilarious. They are always excited and ready to go. It really goes to show you that no matter how many college classes you take, the real learning happens when you are standing in front of the classroom. There are so many layers to teaching which all need to work together in order to be effective. Anyway, elementary school is great because you can act totally silly and the kids don't care. They love you for being silly and excited, and they pick up on your excitement. Although I am sick and tired of jumping through the flaming hoops of the education dept here at IUP, I have never been more excited to have my own classroom and my own gaggle of children to educate. Really, it's gonna be worth all the crap (at least I think so).
3. Kathe Kollwitz
Did someone already use her for the blog? Did I? Eh, I can't remember. Kathe Kollwitz is one of my total fav's. I love the emotion and darkness in her prints, drawings and sculpture. The moodiness is as striking as the contrast of dark and light. Her work depicts a strong social consciousness, focusing mainly on mother/child, rebellion, death, and injustice. Her beliefs were so radical for the time that her home was bombed in WWII. Additionally relevant to the tone of her work, Kollwitz lost her son in WWI and her grandson in WWII. Not surprisingly, these traumas contributed to her political consciousness and the darkness of her work. All in all Kollwitz is one fine example of a strong, socially conscious woman making her voice known in the art world.
No comments:
Post a Comment