Another day altering artistic perspective

I took a lot of enjoyment from today's work at BICAS. I got to conduct my Tour de Bicas (with a TON of help from Angie!). I got to adjust my brakes (finally), and that was pretty cool too.

The first thing I feel was most significant today was simply the action of directly involving yourself in community art by hosting a workshop. It wasn’t a HUGE moment, but definitely a significant one. Like virginity, but with community art.

Alas, I had only one non-UA attendee in my workshop, totaling 3 of us. However, despite few numbers, it was still pretty cool. I felt as though I made an effort to do something, and it yielded an at least positive end result. Even slight success is, in my opinion, something that you remember and try to keep in mind as a teacher. It’s like that with learning, as well, which makes me think that I learned today just as much as others did. The workshop being entirely original made it more enjoyable to see the plans come to fruition. Learning through teaching and keeping the little things in mind are, while cliché, never tired concepts when I encounter them. I’ve taught a few people a few things, and am also an avid learner of various things; I enjoy this sort of thing very much.

In terms of the specific concepts regarding my work at BICAS, I think that I’m understanding why and how preliminary activities (lesson plans, inventory, etc) affect your job. At first these preliminaries and the workshop/teaching/education itself seemed somewhat disconnected, but I’ve got a better glimpse at it now. It’s like a plant’s system of roots—they sometimes seem small and insignificant (especially in early stages of the enterprise) but they’re the anchor and engine of the whole operation.

I’m looking forward to more workshops and connecting with other people through art again. Angie offered the idea that my workshop doesn’t have to be a one-shot thing, and reminded me that it’s always a possibility to keep the methods and ideas around through documentation long after the first run ends. It’s definitely something to keep in mind. Pics to come later