In The Grip of Inspiration

I’m sitting in my world religions class and watching a girl in front of me watch Grey’s Anatomy. Wow, way to take advantage of my blind teacher. (She’s literally blind)At least I am taking notes on my computer as well as composing some thoughts. My English class was stimulating today, we had the first round of presentations and people brought creative responses to any journal that we had read during the semester. Many students brought collages. One student brought a mixed media sculpture. I want to focus on the creative process in my response. I will probably start with elements of the journal that inspired me, then move to a specific painting of Robert Henri that is influencing my painting. I will also talk/show other elements that came into the creative process: Dexter intro, music.
Dan Brawley posted some new pictures of his art. He uses recycled goods and creates interesting, beautiful things from them.
He sent me a nice email a few days ago.This is the entrance to his installation and some others I especially liked:

Entrance to Installation

Dress- The Back

Dress- The Front

Old Hoses in Wilmington

Icarus

Synogogues, Snakes and Interpretive Dance

Today I went to the synogogue Beth Israel in Roanoke to experience the sabbath. It was so interesting and beautiful. The service was mostly in Hebrew and chanted mostly by men so it was unusual and moving. There were elements all through the worship service that reminded me of my own church’s liturgy, but the focus is much more on the holy texts and the idea of God being th center of everything. Obviously in a Christian church, the focus is on the cross, communion and God through Christ.
The people there welcomed us so wonderfully, even pausing at specific times in the service to explain what was about to happen and its meaning. My group of 4 including me stayed after the service for the seder meal and wished I had more opportunity to get to know them. Maybe I will go to a Friday evening service to see the difference. I could also visit a larger synogogue for comparison.
My fencing coach had to cancel our make-up session but he gave me credit for them anyway. The room he normally teaches in got taken over by a teacher training class at the last minute.
He said I did not have the body for epee which he said was long legs and arms, and I could do sabre but the general style is for a bulkier person. Foil is probably the one most suited to my frame.
We will do sabre in the next class, have a day of Katana. The last class is on theatrical fencing and we are to come in costume… I’ll have to put that on my back burner to percolate.
I got to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night with my mom. We enjoyed it, it has that same quality of awkward sweetness mixed with shocking crudeness that feels a bit like real life. I was delighted by the full frontal of the main male character, about time we got over that and evened that tally up a bit. 🙂
My mom found a snake in the yard yesterday and again today. Two different ones. The one she saw today we i.d.’d as a garter snake. She is pretty afraid of snakes, which surprised me. I am not afraid of them much, just the normal human cautious amount.
We decided to go see my classmate Patricia’s performance tonight at the Hollins Theater. It’s interpretive modern dance at 8:15pm. I am looking forward to seeing her dance. She is a fellow student chaplain and also a fencer.
I read that my friend Dan’s organization in Wilmington is showing the 2008 Academy Award winning documentary, Taxi to the Darkside. Wish I could go. I’ll just have to download it.