Guilford High Art classrooms/patio

From the existing structure over at Northern Guilford High, talking to Wade, Lindsey and their students I've started develop some ideas for their adjoining rooms. My main focus at the present is connecting the outside courtyard to the interior classrooms. Which both teachers have expressed a need to have a stronger tie to their exterior environment.

This undertaking is not a sole adventure but there are three other students in my class that are also helping recreate these spaces into different usable dynamic environments. That not only makes the teachers lives a little bit easier as well as gives a breath of inspiration as well to the students that are engaging with these spaces. As a whole group our joint concept is: Sacred Geometry of a circle, which means, to unifying indoor and outdoor through the sacred geometry of a circle.

I’m working with the mediation between the indoor and outdoor environments and hoping to find the best way to blur the two together. In a way to unify the two through having the outside and inside interact with one another in an inclusive circular way. My idea at first was to look at screened in porches and how that creates mediation between the two worlds. From there I moved into a completely open situation where there would be doors would act as the visual passage as well as the physical passage from one environment to the other.

After the informal critics today I believe I am moving back to the idea of a screened porch. Which is strengthened by my wish to create vine trellis, which would act as a way of inclosing the patio. But before all this, what follow is all the drawings that I have created thus far.





I am thinking that when the art classes really get into there pottery sections of the classes they could create pieces that would go out on the patio. Acting as sculptural pieces as well as ways to have extra planters, in this way they are themselves informing the environment in which the live.

 







Wade and Lindsey's classrooms are different in structural apprentices and with these drawings I was thinking of opening the room with a grudge door which was thrown out shortly after the idea because it didn't look right in both rooms.



First crack at opening up the room before doing more research on front facades of cafes.

Observation Drawings

While visting the high school I took some time in Wades classroom and the other art techers room to sketch a few diffrent aspects and veiws of the room. These are the fruits of that undertaking, sorry I couldn't find my black pen.











This is a simple study of what is there now a take off place from which to work from.

Atlanta Field Trip

The past couple of years my program has asked the fourth year class to participate in a class wide trip to Atlanta GA. Two days packed full of visiting different studios, of all sorts and learning, listening and talking to working professionals. Typically the all time high point of the year for the fourth year students.

waited till Sunday afternoon having previous obligations. Myself included in the later half. My dear friend Jess diplomatically decided to drive Kemina and myself down. I was to arrive at Jess's parents home and shower whileAs the week approached the energy level and excitement through out the two studios mounted to new levels. Many choices to leave Saturday morning and start the trip early while others Kemina found her way to Jess's. Then from there we were to start the adventures car trip. Which to my horror turned adventures in ways that no one would like very quickly. We hit sleet on the other side of Charlotte about an hour and half into the trip. After a quick stop to fill up our bellies and the gas tank we hopped back on the road.

Didn't make it too long before the snow started to fall heavy. So much in fact about the time we hit the South Carolina line we had to stop and shovel the snow off the hood of the car so that Jess and I could see out the windshield. Still not terribly worried but taking it slowly we continued onwards, seeing cars abandon or stuck every mile. This only last a couple of minutes because the traffic in front of us came to a stop around 8:30 or so. We chilled in the car all the while getting reports from friends and classmates about the conditions in and outside of Atlanta. Finally after sitting for over an hour we decided that the best action to take would be to pull off and find a hotel for the night and go from there in the morning. All the while the snow is pilling higher and higher around us. After another half hour I tell Jess to go ahead and turn the car off that we're not moving any where for a while. Last time, I heard of this much snow falling this fast the highway was closed to prevent any further accidents on the road that night. Time passes snow continues to fall, Jess's parent call every couple once and a while asking if we've gotten to a hotel yet. Kemina's phone dies after her continues texting for the past couple hours.



My mother calls in a complete panic. "Where are you?" I'm in the car chatting with Jess; we're not moving and don’t look like we are going anywhere any time soon. Are you okay? Yes momma I brought my blanket and pillow and Jess had brought lots of water and snacks for the trip. We are fine, just sitting' chatting away.



A couple of hours later around about 1:30 or 2 AM a gentleman comes wondering by. Taps on the window, scares the heck out of Keman who had been asleep in the back. He's asking if we have kids in the car, if we're all okay and if we have gas. Then moves on when he sees that we got everything under control. But before this he tells us that there had been a couple of wrecked ahead of us and they had been working to clear those and were just getting to the one that blocked us. That it would be a couple more hours because stupid people had made our two lane highway into four trying to squeeze through. I've told Jess to try to get some sleep that I'd stay up and wake her if we started moving or anything else happens.



All is completely quite, haven't seen any cars go by in the other lane in hours.

Little after 3:30 the cars around us turn on their lights and start up their cars. We get moving and are at the stopped tractor-trailer in moments. Find the next exit and turn around and start home. After much debate about if Jess is ready to brave the horrible road conditions. We roll on at a craw for hours occasionally hitting slick spots and the car spinning 90 to 180 degrees. Finally make it to Jess's house about 9 on Monday morning. We're we all find breakfast and a shovel to dig Kemina's car out to continue on to Greensboro and our beds. I'll be complete all right if I never have to go through a night like that ever again. By the time I reached home about 10:30, I was completely exulted physically and mental from staying up all-night and trying to keep Jess alert and calm.

After a hot shower, calling the roommates I hadn’t seen or heard from in the last 24 hours, putt on a movie on I crawled onto the couch to nap.

Poetics of Space Chapters 2 & 3

Chapter 3

It seems to be mainly about image and seems to be more about what an image is and how we perceive that idea. The idea that we are only able to comprehend the idea of an image in certain lines of thought.

It’s about how we store away our secrets in personal spaces so that only those closest to us understand their true meaning. You wouldn’t share the contents of your dresser with a stranger much like you wouldn’t walk up to someone on the street and tell them your deepest desires.

Chapter 2

It seems to be about the disconnect between dreams, daydreams, and reality. We feel more comfortable in our old childhood homes because they connect reality and daydreams from that time in our lives. Our dreams are never resolved but they are always open ended and our daydreams are a way to relax our minds and make sense of things going on around us.

Roots part II

My favorite teacher was my high school biology teacher, Ms. Shankle. She was a newly graduated student of Western Carolina and full of ambition. She really worked really hard to make the best of her class and put forth a lot of energy in her teaching, and she worked to make everyone into believing biology is her favorite subject. She pushed everyone in her classes as hard as she believed that they could handle. I learned more in her class and was pushed harder than in any other classes. She was creative in ways to make the subject matter more understandable and fun.

What was your favorite class during elementry, middle, or high school?

My favorite part of the day in elementary school was recess and a part of me still needs these recesses from class and work life. A definition of recess is: a break from classes during the school day, during which no work or business is done, specifically a long period in which a legislative body is not sitting.

And my elementary school was large enough that we had to have blocks were certain age groups were allowed to go outside so it seems to me to be a class. Or better yet a break from class. Sometimes are recess was used by the science portion or other sections to get hands on experiences in the natural world around us.

The Poetics of Space

As a class we are reading the work 'The Poetics of Space' which is a tough read but my favorite quote so far in the work is:

"-A being who does not want to melt away, and who, even in the past, when he sets out in search of things past, wants time to "suspend" its flight." (Page 8)

We are looking at past history and wish to draw from it and learn but also do not want to be lost in the past. To stare out into time and space, and make a small impact if not difference in the world. Which is by no means a new thought or idea but I believe this is summed up by a poem written by Ralph Emerson goes as the following: "To laugh often and much: to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived/ this is to have succeeded."

No one really wishes to melt into the masses in every situation and every aspect of there lives, to be left out in limbo for eternity. Having little or not impact on those that we come in contact with each day is no way to live. But to reach out and touch another person in some way or situation may very well change the course of history. By effecting how that person response to the next situation or experience they and/or you are thrust into. We each have to fight against getting pulled into the storm of life, and live separate from each other.