Just got back from taking Sarah to Corvallis for a three-week pre-college program in art. We got her all settled in her dorm room, made her bed, and got her clothes unpacked. We wandered all around the building, and located the places she'll need to visit: bathroom, showers, laundry. We arranged our arrival early enough to give us time to explore the campus, too. We located the food court where she'll eat her meals, and the buildings where she'll attend her classes. She felt good about having time to get her bearings. That's important to Sarah.
This JumpstART program is really exciting! She's taking sculpture and printmaking, spending three hours in each class per day, with additional open studio time most evenings. It's intense! In sculpture, she'll be doing lost wax casting, and perhaps some woodworking (complete with power tools!) and found object sculpture. The studio has a huge rolling oven for large metal castings and all kinds of welding materials and such. Pretty cool! What an opportunity for artistic growth! There are only five students in that class, so there will be plenty of opportunity for individual instruction.
Her printmaking instructor is Japanese and does beautiful work. He'll have them doing intaglio printing - kind of a pen-and-ink look when finished. All there work will be black and white, but with two different techniques. First, they'll scratch onto Plexiglas, and print from that. Later, they'll use copper plates and etch onto that surface with chemicals. Such exposure to materials and facilities she can't get in high school... She's one of ten in that class.
There are 27 students in the program, so she should have a chance to get to know some of them well. It will be interesting to see how she adjusts to dorm life, and whether she and her roommate get along. She'll definitely have a taste of what it'll be like to go off to college in two years (OMG! Is it that soon?), and so will we.
This is such a tremendous opportunity for growth for her, both artistically and emotionally. I'm curious to see who she is when she comes home... I'm so psyched for her!
This JumpstART program is really exciting! She's taking sculpture and printmaking, spending three hours in each class per day, with additional open studio time most evenings. It's intense! In sculpture, she'll be doing lost wax casting, and perhaps some woodworking (complete with power tools!) and found object sculpture. The studio has a huge rolling oven for large metal castings and all kinds of welding materials and such. Pretty cool! What an opportunity for artistic growth! There are only five students in that class, so there will be plenty of opportunity for individual instruction.
Her printmaking instructor is Japanese and does beautiful work. He'll have them doing intaglio printing - kind of a pen-and-ink look when finished. All there work will be black and white, but with two different techniques. First, they'll scratch onto Plexiglas, and print from that. Later, they'll use copper plates and etch onto that surface with chemicals. Such exposure to materials and facilities she can't get in high school... She's one of ten in that class.
There are 27 students in the program, so she should have a chance to get to know some of them well. It will be interesting to see how she adjusts to dorm life, and whether she and her roommate get along. She'll definitely have a taste of what it'll be like to go off to college in two years (OMG! Is it that soon?), and so will we.
This is such a tremendous opportunity for growth for her, both artistically and emotionally. I'm curious to see who she is when she comes home... I'm so psyched for her!
