Hello out there...

Happy Valentine's Day! And happy birthday to Mom too.

Wow, it's been over 2 weeks since I've posted here. Time flies. Yes, we're busy.

School's going okay. I'm still trying to get settled into a daily/weekly routine. I just seem to be more relaxed after things become a regular routine, but so far each day of this term has found me running in different directions. Running to the library, running to the math lab, driving to the engineering campus to pick up Hubby, so I just haven't been able to relax mentally. I feel like I'm always on the go and therefore feel a bit frazzled. Maybe in a few more weeks things will quiet down.

My painting classes at UNT are probably going to prove beneficial for my "artistic growth." At TCC the instructors pretty much had a focus on painting still-lifes that look realistic, something that I never had a problem with. But I had heard that UNT is more contemporary, and that worries me somewhat that I'll be a fish out of water there. My artwork has always been centered on representationalism (painting things that portray real life objects), not on the contemporary. But after our first project I had a sit-down meeting with my instructor and he's already opened my eyes to some things-

• I've only been concerned with HOW I'm painting something, not WHY I'm painting it. In other words, the concept behind what I'm painting and why I want to paint it. What do I want the viewer to think or feel? I've honestly never considered that, I've just painted objects for people to recognize those objects. Hmmmm.
  
• I tend to tell the "whole story" in my artwork. My paintings are like a narrative in which the viewer is able to read the whole storyline in one glance, so then they move on to the next painting. It doesn't make people stop and wonder about anything, there's nothing to make them curious and think for themselves. I've already completed the thought for them, so there's nothing for them to do but go to the next artwork.
  

So, I have food for thought now. And I know I'll never go over the cliff totally into contemporary work, but I also know that learning some of the philosophies behind contemporary will hopefully make my representationalism more interesting. I knew my artwork was missing something, and so maybe this will help fill some gaps.

Anyway, beyond that, on a low note my algebra class has become aggrevating. The university is trying out a new classroom learning structure but they didn't warn students about it when we registered. I signed up for a class that was supposed to meet 2 days a week in a classroom environment. I chose this arrangement instead of an internet course because I wanted to have an instructor standing in front of me at a blackboard explaining how to work problems and why. BUT, it turns out we are only to meet on ONE day a week and spend 3 hours in the campus computer math lab. So we basically have to teach ourselves algebra on the computer, exactly the reason that I didn't sign up for the internet course! Then on the one day that we do meet, we are put into small study groups where we work out one or two problems, and then the instructor chooses one of us from our group to stand at the board and work out our problem and explain it. Excuse me, we are not the instructors!!! I considered dropping this course and trying again next term to arrange a classroom setting, but I just hate to drop classes so I'm sticking it out. Ugh. And I have a scholarship riding on my grades, which is why I'm concerned with doing well.

The funny thing is, Hubby is taking an algebra course that's one step back, and yet they're studying the exact same material. Since his class actually meets in a classroom and this stuff is explained, he then is able to explain it all to me at home when I'm doing my homework.

So that's what's going on. Art classes- good, math class-bad. I'm looking forward to summer.