Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Calculus at Salem State started yesterday. I'm reserving judgement until I've had a few classes. Well, it's a math class, so I'm not going to enjoy it. And it's something I didn't particularly think I was going to need to take until U of M kindly informed me that AP credit did not get you out of your math prerequisite. And, you know, it's not going to have any use at all in either one of my intended majors. So I might be a wee bit sour about the whole thing, but we'll see.
Parking at least isn't too big of a mess... street parking is, but you can park in the athletic facilities lot quite easily, and it's just a short walk down some residential streets from there to the building my class is in. That wasn't terribly fun last night, when it began to storm something awful mere moments before we got out for the night, but it ought to be tolerable under normal circumstances.
I am also amused to note that my car now has two stickers on the back of it: a University of Michigan alumni sticker, and a Salem State College parking sticker. This is interesting because I am not a University of Michigan alum (that would be my parents), nor am I actually a Salem State student. Note to self: must get non-alumni U of M sticker at some point.
Oh. The fellow teaching this delightful summer calculus class has a website up where we can go to get our homework assignments and whatnot. Bless him. I want to hold his hand, tell him it will all be OK, and give him a crash course in web design.
Apparently this fellow found a link to my site on Ann Arbor is Overrated (I comment on the stories there whenever I remember to check them) and liked my scientific doodlings enough to note them on his site. This brings us to the Steps for Artistic Success.
Step 1: Make artwork. I've had that covered for a while now, I like to think.
Step 2: Cultivate artsy friends so that you're exposed to lots of different art types and always have folk around for criticism. In Swampscott this was not an easy thing to do, I assure you. Despite this I managed to become friends with Kate and Corey, neither of whom has a website, the lazy gits. Then I started taking summer classes at local art colleges, which turned out to be the best idea I'd had in a long time and led to my friends from Montserrat and MassArt.
Now of course I'm friends with kids from the Michigan art school, but hey, it was harder to find arteests before college, OK?
Step 3: Put artwork in public forum. Been doing that for a bit now over at b3ta, but I only got the good stuff up once I made my main site this past semester for digital class. Chip, thank cats for you.
Step 4: Get complete strangers to think your stuff has some merit. This is apparently where I am right now. The folks at b3ta and 4rthur have been very helpful, and it's a good sign when they like your stuff, since so many of them are so bloody talented themselves. *cough*Down on the Farm*cough* You come across lovely nice people like Ryan who out-of-the-blue ask you to be in art shows.
And then you get the people who find your site in random places, such as the aforementioned gentleman who just linked me, and you start to think maybe this whole art lark isn't so mad after all.
Step 5: Get paid for your artwork. Not there yet. But we're getting there. Hopefully. Hopefully.
Well, that was illuminating. Now off to watch a TV show, reread Harry Potter in anticipation of the upcoming movie release, and do math homework. Such is life.
9:22 PM
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