As some of you know, I was working this summer for Black Rocket Productions. They mostly teach video game design, 3d modeling, and other techie things to kids during the summer. It was my first year with the company, and I had an absolute blast! The kids were super creative, and excited to be there. I had two favorite things this summer. One was, and I know this kind of cliche but, seeing the look on a kid's face when they had that "aah hah" moment, and figured out how to do whatever they were just trying to do or create. That was priceless, and worth the long hours in the car driving to and fro North Jersey in my '96 Ford P.O.S. My other favorite thing was learning right along with the younglings.
This summer was such a challenge tackling somewhere between 15-20 new pieces of software, daily tech problems, behavior issues, getting a grasp of classroom management, and learning a whole new group of kids each week. I had very little teaching experience, and was able to pick up a lot of useful techniques from my coworkers. Also, my girlfriend is an educator, and was an invaluable resource this summer. She was unafraid of telling me when I am wrong, or what I can be doing better with the kids. Having gone through art school where critiques were a big part of our education, I miss having an honest opinion of my work. All of the issues were overcome, and none of it I would have traded for an easier summer, because I learned soo much.
In the last few weeks; I have gotten engaged to my beautiful girlfriend (and I'm not just saying that because she might read this), I started volunteering at the MakerStudio at the Mullica Hill Library, I was asked to be on the advisory board of the CFAA (www.centerforaccessibleart.org), I hung 45 pieces of work with help from my friend Ben and my sister at the Ross Beitzel gallery at Rowan College for a show this Friday (Sept 5th 12-2 pm is the opening), got a new job, and got back in my own studio working on a couple new timepieces (WIP pics to come).
The MakerStudio (www.gcls.org/makerstudio) has been really fun. The 3D printer is by far my favorite thing in there. I started working in TinkerCad, upgraded to Sculptris, and now I'm starting to learn Blender and Autocad. The coolest thing, IMO, I've printed has been a chess set. I still need to work on the board, but tonight while I was watching the space I found a modular board that snaps together when you need it, and breaks apart (more to come on this too).
Now that the summer program is over I am playing catch up with the rest the things important in my life. Starting this blog is one of the things I wanted to do over the summer, but needed to focus on other endeavors. I am going to use this space to showcase works in progress, events, random things, and whatever else may arise in my day. A good quote I read today was, “The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change -” Heraclitus, so the intent and content of this page will surely evolve, or devolve over time. Please stay tuned.