18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11

I'm just emerging from my first week back in classes after break and the family visit, and i can't lie, motivation is flagging.  there is much more to be done than earlier in the semester, but i think i'm still in the mindset that there isn't much i have to do.

Concerning classes, which i don't mention much i guess, they vary.  I generally find my studio courses frustrating, often due to the astoundingly unhelpful feedback from professors.  In sculpture, however, we spend about half our time going out to see shows at galleries, which is nice.  I am also in two critical studies courses, one about modern aesthetics (kant and hegel) and the other on "theatre of the everyday" (lots of kaprow, recently blanchot and de certeau also).  Those two classes I've become fairly interested in recently, because of some interesting readings and our long-term substitute, who is more engaging than our usual (and sick) professor.  As a printmaking sidenote, on a whim, I've just started working on a mezzotint. However, I'm still in the process of rocking the plate.

so, there are some rewarding parts, but largely school is still... well, not what i wish it was.

on the upside, things are getting much sunnier here, and very slowly warmer.  I keep thinking that's it's nearly april.  every month is a relief.  

and i'm reallly reallllly excited to reach the end of parsons paris and spend a few weeks with emily/madeleine/sarah traveling to exciting, but currently undecided, places.  I project that it will be like the sisterhood of the traveling pants, but better. but that's just a guess because I've never seen/read it.  So maybe I'll compare it to "Now and Then" instead. plus Europe.

I'm losing interest in this post so here are some rapid-fire facts to finish:

1.  I am integrating espresso into my functioning routine.  and I like it.  I never thought I'd see the day.

2.  I think i found my favorite baguette.

3.  Everytime I see the beautiful things being made by friends at home, it makes me a little achy.

4.  I'm getting more sleep than ever before.

5.  My favorite museum so far is probably still the Grande Galerie d'Evolution.  All art considered.

6.  This experienced has reversed my attitude toward my telephone

7.  Yesterday I had a french conversation with a sweet museum guard about art nouveau and art deco.  Another museum guard gave us Ricola that tasted like lychee.

8.  I still can't pull my mind off the summer, no matter how vague it is currently.

9.  I take the amount of galleries in this city for granted.

(p.s. for dad: I love the book you left me!  I feel like a little bit of a dork for finding biogeography so interesting.)

i live with the temperature

our building is full of instruments.  across one courtyard and up a floor today there was a man playing a guitar and singing along.  somewhere downstairs there are some classical strings. above us is a woman who's singing is more like wailing. and once, we thought we heard a didgeridoo, although it might have just been serious guitar distortion.  so that's where we live. sometimes it's nice, but often just vaguely noisy.

i feel like i owe some photos, but i haven't taken any new ones in a while.  I mean to take some photos of projects i've been working on and post those, but these will have to do for now, just some updates form the pompidou. 

oh pi-ca-sso. you fiend.

hello francis picabia.

de l'atelier d'Andre Breton... i want it all.

of course.

it's been an ice cream and brownies kind of week, and it's just begun.  but soon annie gets to leave for a break and my family arrives to love and distract me for a while.  i will soak up all their energy.

also, i don't think i've mentioned it, but this is the first period of my life where i have discovered a love of avocados. i'm not sure how it happened, but it has revolutionized salads.

other things that are in my head right now: paper mache, tents, rooftop garden possibilities, costumes, baking bread, and "meanwhile, let's battle the alligators." (thank you allen kaprow)