Adjustments to My Schedule

Ruth Asawa and her beautiful sculptures.

It's been a week since I last posted anything on my blog, mainly because I have had a crazy last couple of days. I posted sometime in December that I was offered a teaching job at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco. It would be a math position, where I would teach pre-calculus and advanced algebra, and the job would last from January to May. I was torn as to whether I would take the job but finally decided that I couldn't turn down this opportunity. I would only be teaching from 8am to 12:20 and could still be in the studio for at least five hours a day, which is the minimum hours I need to feel like I am painting full-time.

Since I decided to take the job, I spent all weekend and most of this week filling out paperwork, ordering transcripts, getting fingerprinted, and verifying my previous employment (which meant I had to go to my previous school districts and get them to sign some forms). I met with the principal, scoped out my "new" classroom, and tried to get together my lesson plans. In addition to this, I celebrated a birthday, visited my mother-in-law in Portland, had a studio visit by one of my favorite galleries, all while trying to get in some painting time. I started teaching this Thursday morning, getting up at 6am for the first time since June, with little more than 4 hours of sleep.  Needless to say, I haven't had much time to blog.

So far, teaching at SOTA has been great. There are so many creative kids there and they have been great in welcoming me to the school. It's not easy starting mid-year, when students have already established their routines. The last thing they probably want is to have a new teacher come in and completely change things up, but they are surviving and so am I. I don't think this will impact my painting schedule too much. I am usually in the studio around noon, and with my teaching schedule, I can still get in at a reasonable time. I am still painting full-time but now I am also a part-time math teacher, at least until May 27th, when I transform back into JUST an artist. It will be an interesting couple of months to say the least.

On a side note, those of you residing in the Bay Area, I have 12 paintings at Artzone 461 Gallery (461 Valencia St. @ 16th St.) for their "Small Works, Small Prices" show in their side gallery. The opening reception is this Saturday, January 22nd, from 5-8pm. I will be there and I also made up a couple batches of my special homemade truffles. Tomorrow's flavors are ginger with sugar crystals and bing cherry with pecans. Please stop by and say "Hi!".