Friday, June 20, 2008

One armed Em

I feel like I only have one usable hand right now :-(

Ever since I played the POS Frumpet in marching band I have had tingly sensations and irritation in my hands and wrists. For example when I push a shopping cart across a parking lot my hands ache and tingle. Or if I am driving on a rough road my hands hurt from the vibrations on the steering wheel. Not fun, but it has never severely interfered with my life. I never saw a doctor about it but I have suspected that I have some kind of nerve damage or carpal tunnel syndrome.

Flash forward to June 2008. I woke up this morning with my wrist absolutely killing me!I am in a ceramics class and have been learning to throw on a potter's wheel. Now when you watch potters do this they make it look effortless, but in reality it takes a lot of strength to move the clay where you want it. This has apparently aggravated my wrist/hand condition because it is so painful that just the action of gripping a light object sends a sharp pain from my wrist down my arm.

I can't turn a doorknob, open the fridge, or pick up my 2 lb puppy without being in great pain. I'm really upset b/c I love my ceramics class and fear that this is going to stop my progress of learning the wheel in its tracks. Monday morning I plan on setting a dr.'s appointment with a hand specialist so I can get this thing diagnosed and treated. Such a bummer...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Happy

I am almost finished with my first week of summer classes and I am SO happy! I am taking ceramics and photography this session, and drawing in the second summer session. Drawing and painting are kind of my fortes, so ceramics and photography were kind of out of my comfort zone. BOY am I glad I took them anyway!

In 3 days of my ceramic class I've finished a large abstract sculpture (that's ready to go in the kiln) and learned how to throw pots on the potter's wheel and trim them! It is SO much more productive than boring business classes that put me to sleep! This class is at 8am and I have to drive a ways to get there, but even though it's early, I am excited to wake up every morning because I look forward to class so much!

Somehow, I feel alive again. A hole in my life has been filled in. I feel that my purpose in life must involve art and in hindsight I can't believe that I didn't realize this sooner. In high school I had art in my life, but I was always distracted somehow by boys and other high school things. Now that I have Glenn and art in my life I am just about the happiest girl in the world!

I really think I have a high level of natural talent, but also I have worked hard my whole life to try to be a good artist. Everything is coming easily to me now; I feel like I'm at the point where every piece of art I have observed and done in my life is sitting in my brain and so when I am designing something, my mind somehow just knows what a good design/ composition looks like without thinking about it. It's hard to describe, but it's almost like the less I think about it, the easier it comes out in my artwork. For whatever reason that art comes easily to me, I KNOW I can do great things!

For the first time I can see a career that is enjoyable for myself and even exciting to me- being an art teacher! What other job allows you to be immersed in your subject of interest, affect young people's lives, get to attend art classes on the school district' dime, gets the summers off, and still starts out making around 45,000/yr? It's a pretty awesome gig! Teaching in college and simultaneously being able to sell my own artwork in galleries would be my ideal goal, but I will start with teaching high school.

I will post pictures of my new artwork when they are totally finished!