07 august 2017
hey tilders <3
i'm so glad to be back here after a long absence; i'm taking some time to get caught up on all the new projects, expansions, users, etc. that have made their way onto this little universe. i'm glad this place is here. i'm glad it's still here and growing and feels good!
since i was last around, i guess:
- finished a semester with my first grad-level class; i am not an actual grad student, i just get tuition reimbursements from my employer to take courses, and i made the jump to grad courses to see if it was something i felt suitable for me in the future. i keep thinking about going in for history/anthropology/something in that vein, it just hasn't made sense yet. the class went really well for me, even though it was a little intimidating and way more time and work than i've put into an academic pursuit. i'll be trying this again in the fall!
- i spent about a month with the us national parks service as an artist-in-residence; this meant that i mostly got to hike around a bunch, take photographs of rocks and trees, meet ecologists and learn about how the planet works, teach some workshops on antiquated photographic processes, give a few visiting artist presentations, etc. it was a really intense experience, and i'm still processing it (both literally and figuratively; i shot all film, so i've been in the darkroom more or less nonstop to get through it)
- my residency was bookended by motorcycle trips since that's how i got myself there; i learned a lot about how to do long, solo travel via motorcycle. one of my long-term goals is to constantly improve my motorcycle touring skills, and i've never felt better about myself.
basically, i feel good, i've taken a lot of my nervous spinning in circles energy and pointed it towards concrete things and now i have a lot of excellent feelings about working hard and doing more things in the future. a lot of the world feels a little bit bad lately, and i think this is what i need to work on in order to be my best person and be in a better position to be a force for good and beauty and love <3
gosh i'm seriously off the deep end in peace love and dirty hippie right now, and i don't even feel bad about it <3
thanks for reading <3 <3 <3