1st day revelations

A view from my room at Penland. More photos to come...

when I arrived, a card with this quote was on my pillow:

"As  human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us is, that each of us has something that no one else has or ever will have - something inside of us that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and provide ways of developing its expression."-Fred Rogers

Today I drove from Beech Mountain, NC to Penland.  It's the craft school where I'll be for the next two weeks. 

 (for anyone who doesn't know- I'm taking a glass class for the first two weeks, then I have a 2 week break, then I come back to Penland to take a nature journaling class... dorkily named "art for nature freaks".... I'm a nerd. I really wanted to take it.)

Now, I'm taking a glass class called "Portraits, Narratives, and Myths." It's called a "glass" class here but it's a multimedia class. The description is so broad.... that I really have NO clue what it's going to be like, or what we'll be doing. And after our first class tonight, I realized our instructors don't either. And I'm totally cool with that... actually I'm glad.

The school is beautiful. Tucked away in the mountains. I drove in and was nervous... Not knowing where to go, or what to do, or what to expect. I've got my OWN room (yay!) and my own bathroom (yay! yay!) in a house called "bill's house." My housemates are women in there 50's-60's who are here for pottery and basket weaving. Yes... all of the wild parties will be in this house!  

But really, they are all great and nice. Everyone I've met here has been nice. It's funny when I try to explain the class I'm taking... People will ask, "what class are you in?"  I say, "glass" (it's true, and quick one word answers are always best). But if they say, "blowing?" I have to say "no... it's hot and cold glass" and then they look confused... and I answer by looking confused and shrugging. 

Dinner was delicious. When I sat at the table, a woman who has been here the last 17 years was talking about how she first came to Penland after experiencing loss and tragedy and how healing this place is. I didn't say anything, but in my head I thought "good... that's why I'm here."

Things I learned today:

1. I have an irrational fear of bees. Today, I walked by a tree that started to buzz and I jumped and ran... People who saw me thought it was funny.... I did not. I swear... I hear buzzing constantly. I do NOT do bugs. The ants here look like they shoot steroids, and the bees are the size of my fist. There's a spider on my patio... I swear it's staring me down. 

2. My Target shoes ain't gonna fly. Nope. I wore them to walk to the studio and back.. and now, I'll never be able to walk in them again. OUCH.

3. Bears are scary. I haven't seen any. No one's said anything about them... but still, I'm terrified.

4. The GPS is not always right. I tried to go to Walmart to buy things I forgot: shampoo, conditioner, bug spray, and a flashlight. The GPS looked like it knew where to go... it had the address and everything... I followed it for 20 mins, and when it said "arriving at destination" I was on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere near logging mills and hay fields- NOT Wal-mart. I never did find a Walmart... so I came back empty handed.

5. Eggs and Motor oil in a glass bottle is art. Yes, just hang it on the wall. Tonight we all had to show examples of our work. There are only 2 of us in the class who have not worked with glass. I'm probably the only one who hasn't been to art school. Some people in my class have done these huge and insane installation projects. One girl had a wall of glass bottles of stuff in them on a wall.... weird stuff like pulverized bacon (not like the one with eggs and motor oil isn't weird)... I can't remember what she said it represented... something like a line out of the movie "Art School Confidential".... about not recognizing familiarity... .   Actually,  all of the my new classmates had really neat sculpture, and collages. One of my instructors uses fabric in her work... I really like her work.

I'm really excited about tomorrow. I'm glad I'm not the only one who had no idea what our class would be like... the instructors don't either. They are both really cool.. I really like them both and their work. I'm slightly intimidated... but I'm just going to take each day as something new. 

I just got back to my room... it's 11:30. I wanted to go to Yoga at 7am.... but now that seems a little early. I think I'll go to the 5pm class instead.