Monday, February 4, 2008

My once-a-semester-post

Let's see....Last time I checked in (and that time, also, having forgotten my password), it was about fourth week. Here I sit in a nearby research library, again, in fourth week...Must be time for a post to my blog. Alas....

The end of last semester was rushed, as it always is, and the intersession found me in Europe with students. I had about six days between returning from taking students to London and Dublin and starting classes and that seemed to be just enough to get re-acclimated to life in the little city. 

This semester has been going at a quick pace already. My classes this semester are Survey of Art 2 (beginning with the late Middle Ages and continuing to the Modern era); a seminar on public sculpture (which I developed two years ago and am able to teach again); and a new course on art history methods that I developed for our art history majors. In particular, the public sculpture course is just a delight. And, this class is very, very small. I have three students (a number of the seniors took the course with me as sophomores so I have an entirely new lot this time around!). We have been discussing controversies in public art for the first two weeks. Last week we moved on to environmental art in celebration of a global warming teach-in that our college hosted. Many classes over the past few days addressed global warming and environmentalism in their courses. My students and I shared information on environmental art, artists who are activists, and "green" art practices (such as using environmentally safe paints and inks). In addition, my dear colleague, Daniel, led a session on silkscreen. Thankfully, one of the senior art majors showed up. Otherwise, it would have been a lonely time. I guess too much global warming talk makes the ozone, as well as the audience, disappear. 

Another post to follow soon...