Today I woke up, had a quick breakfast, packed a PB&J and an apple in my lunch sack, shoved my art stuff in my book bag, and took off for school. It was overcast outside and looked like it could definitely rain, so I wore my boots and took my umbrella. I wanted to walk to class rather than taking the train--it takes more time, but it's actually a more direct route (and of course more exercise).
Not surprisingly, it was drizzling when I went out the front door. No problem. I put up my umbrella and walked the first few blocks. Then it suddenly started coming down really hard. I kept going, but a minute later it was a full-on downpour. People on bikes pulled over and waited under balconies or overhangs, and pedestrians were hurrying for cover too. I didn't want to be late, so I kept going, but within five minutes my boots were totally wet and my socks were soaked. It was so frustrating because I was trying to dodge the puddles, but I just couldn't avoid the water. There was too much of it everywhere! If only I had known it would pour like that, I would have brought my rain rubbers!
When I finally got to school, my hair, my feet, and the whole lower half of my legs were totally wet. The raincoat and umbrella had helped, but I still felt like a drowned rat. It was kind of a bummer because my book bag, which is vinyl, had rips in it and my stuff inside got soggy too. I had to go all day at school with wet socks. Lesson learned: Always bring rain rubbers along for a walk if there is even a remote possibility of rain!!!
Despite the wet feet, I had fun in printmaking class. I stayed late for open lab time and made an extra zinc plate. In the end, I turned out four prints today: two from each plate. The first was an etching, and the second was an aquatint etching, which always takes a while because of all the steps involved. But in the end it was worth the work--the prints came out nice.
My ribs have been really sore--I think they went out of alignment when I was in the hostel bed in Kraków--so I asked Marni if she would come over and try to crack my back. (I figured that between her, Indra, and Petra, she would use the most force.) Indra came in the room too. It was like a comedy of errors. We didn't get my back to re-align, but we did have some good laughs!
Working on my illustrations for book class. I decided to do a book that is a throwback to a story I wrote when I was 5 years old. The original story was called "The Rainy Big Wave Day" and it was about the huge waves in Seal Beach during El Niño in the winter of 1997/98. Marni gave me the idea. I was having trouble thinking of something I really wanted to do for the project, and she said, "Go back to your childhood. What special memories do you have? What things stand out to you from when you were a kid?" I thought back to when I was young, and "The Rainy Big Wave Day" popped into my head almost immediately. (My family will tell you, this little story I wrote is basically famous among the five of us, one of those classic things that went down in Stanley Family history.) Anyway, since I started drawings for this idea, it's been way easier to work on. It's something I'm passionate about, because it's a story about my family and my hometown. In a way, drawing Seal Beach has helped me deal with the little bit of homesickness I'm starting to feel. So . . . when I come home, I hope to have "The Rainy Big Wave Day" actually bound in a book!
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