Since this week was closer to a formal class than previous weeks of exploration, I didn't feel like each day warranted its own post. Here's a more general update (sorry there aren't pictures):
Monday - "Guys, what day is it? Revolution Monday!"
Still recovering from our travels around and back from London, we were pretty content to simply sit back and practice "life drawing" with Gavin. Even though I typically don't like drawing or sketching because I find it so difficult to reproduce my mental images on the page, it was a nice change of pace to have a day that involved more sitting than walking. We also went on a lecture/walk with yet another professor (it's really interesting sampling all these different teaching styles for various activities) that evening, which was fun.
Then it was time for, as Megan had excitedly dubbed it and repeated throughout the day, "Revolution Monday." We had plans to return to Revolution, the restaurant we had discovered on ladies' night last week, for their Mega Mondays meal deal. This was exciting for several reasons: 1) we had not actually returned to a single restaurant yet in our time here, and doing so made us feel like we had (almost) learned our way around town, 2) we usually wander around indecisively until we find somewhere random to eat, so having prior plans was new, and 3) having received our weekly stipend after nearly going broke in London, we felt all the richer for being able to save money on a half-off dinner deal.
Tuesday - "You're hunting Byron, you're hunting Lawrence." "O...kay..."
Gavin took us to Backlit, a gallery in an old warehouse, to chat with their marketing manager, see the exhibition they're currently running, and learn about the space. Although I didn't really understand most of the art in the exhibition, I appreciated getting to talk with someone who has actually found several jobs in a creative field. The atmosphere of the gallery was nice too; it's an independent place, so they focus on representing the styles and themes that are important to them.
In the afternoon we had time to work on our final projects for the week, of which we will have a mini exhibition on Friday. There are three other students in our class this time: Aysha, who has been with us from the first week, and Annie and Sally Ann, two older ladies who recently completed another art course and are continuing to explore their artistic talents. We've invited them all to our final (separate, in our fourth week) exhibition for our Fulbright program, so hopefully they'll be able to come and see our projects fully developed.
That evening, we met up with Sean Elliott Maher (half an hour late, after a bit of a mix-up about where we were supposed to meet) for a session called "Literary Nottingham." He told us about Lord Byron and D.H. Lawrence, two local writers of some importance, then we compared their writing styles. This is the type of stuff that really interests me, so I enjoyed it...but evening activities can be rather draining of brain power.
Wednesday - "How'd your photo turn out?" "It didn't."
We spent the morning making pinhole cameras, then running in and out of the maze that is the fine arts building to take a picture, dash back into the dark room, and develop it to see if we had guessed the right exposure time. After a few failures, I decided to start working on my actual project for the end of the week. I printed out photos of Nottingham landmarks and experimented with a few paint techniques to get the effect I wanted. Our evening activity had been rescheduled, so we enjoyed a bit of free time back at the flat.
Thursday - "Are you going to use that spray paint?'
We basically spent all day getting our projects ready for Friday. I was almost mistaken for a vandal by a construction worker who heard me shaking spray paint out by a dumpster. As he rounded the brick wall, however, he saw that I had taped up a drop cloth and was actually spray painting cutouts of Nottingham landmarks through a lace shawl I had taped over them. He went back to work.
We had another session with Sean that evening, where we played Mad Libs and wrote for about fifteen minutes before sharing our work. It was nice to be back in a writing workshop environment, even if it was only with first drafts we'd written five minutes before.
Friday - "This room is so hot."
Today we finished up our projects, displayed them throughout the room we've been using, and had a mini exhibition for our class. (I actually forgot to take pictures of mine, so...sorry.) We looked at and gave feedback for each piece, then Gavin showed us some of his own work. It was interesting, but the room was boiling hot with no air conditioning or even good air circulation, so I was pretty relieved to finally get outside! We also said goodbye to Annie, Sally Ann, and Aysha today; next week is just us working on our final exhibition projects.
Tonight we're supposed to go to a gallery/exhibition opening at the Nottingham Contemporary, and our group is also planning to visit the beach in Market Square. Yes, you read that right; Nottingham builds a fake beach in the middle of the city every year, complete with sand, rides, tiki bars, and a boardwalk. We've walked past it as they constructed it, but haven't looked around yet, so I'm excited for that!
Posts next week may be more general in nature (for example, I have a draft centered around Carson's plight as the lone male in our group) since all we're really doing is working on our final projects with a few evening activities and a volunteer opportunity here and there. But tomorrow I'm spending the day in Brighton, so expect a post about that soon!
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