Irish studies is awesome because we get lectured a bit on some aspect of Ireland or the Burren and we take trips to places relevant to the subject matter. This happens every friday so that means tomorrow is our first official class.
I had art history today which was great. My photo professor, Martina, teaches it and she is wonderfully soft spoken but also talks very fast (to which I can relate!) and has a great sense of humor but is also incredibly knowledgeable. It's an emphasis on European art and identity. I'm very excited, I love it already. It's also very inspirational which helps because I feel a bit lost trying to figure out what kind of art I want to make while I'm here.
My first official class this week was photo. It's much more assignment based than I've ever experienced before which I think will be good. It's about time I get some structure in my photo life, haha. Our first assignment is Place as Identity. I'm finding a place in Ballyvaughan to basically study with my camera for the next week and a half. I think I've settled on Louge's Pub, the one we visit the most. It is open all year round and serves food as well as drink. It's quite a hot spot for Burren students but also for the locals. A good place to start I think.
I also had my life drawing class and started my advanced painting class. They are both taught by the same professor, Terry, who is from Wisconsin surprisingly. He is very nice and encouraging, we will see how I end up liking him. We also have an "every other week" painting professor called Emmett. He is a very nice, younger Irish man. We chatted today about my work and what type of paintings I will be making while I'm here. He was also very encouraging. Since I have only been in such structured painting classes it's very overwhelming to me to have al this freedom to paint whatever I like, I almost don't even know what I like to paint! I mean, people obviously, haha, but self portraits? or regular portraits? Myths or real life? Dreamscapes or just a focus on the figure? I don't know, I guess I will figure it out though. This weekend hopefully I can start with some painting sketches to get me back on track.
As for life drawing, it's just great to draw a model again, I missed that. I bought some really crappy soft pastels because I left all of mine at school for some stupid reason, but they will have to do. The art store here on campus is more like an art closet chock full of art goodies, again overwhelming as is everything else, haha, but Robert is a big help.
(for those of you that don't know, Robert is Burren's handy man/van driver/art supplier. He pretty much runs the school, it would shut down if he left because something is always breakind down. AKA heating systems, gas systems, washing machines, etc, etc. It's very helpful having him around and he has quite the sense of humor. I love the Irish.
Anyways, we are taking a trip to Galway this Saturday so that is exciting! It's actually funny, a couple of my friends and I (specifically my friend Mandy) have been craving a bit of Starbucks in our lives so sadly enough, the first thing we are doing once we get there is seeking out the Starbucks. It's a comfort food thing, guys! After that we will do some hardcore exploring. Hopefully book shops, clothes shops, pubs, and so on. I'm excited.
So Yup, that's about it for now. I'm feeling a little lazy so I need to snap out of that and get to work! Study abroad peeps were right, It is hard to stay on track with this lax teaching environment. Oh well, I'll get the hang of it.
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