note to self: tomorrow watch the grass grow

12 of my students are participating in the Visual Arts Classic (VAC) which includes high school students from all over southern Wisconsin. They are competing in several different areas including: personal adornment (jewelry), ceramics, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, video, & graphic design.

It has definitely been a stressful week with trying to throw everything together, especially having students that would outscore me on the procrastination scale.

The competition is tomorrow. When you think about sports competitions there are people doing active things like running, jumping, or playing a specific sport. These competitions are also usually accompanied by screaming fans that cheer on their favorite player or team. I would liken this art competition to a three hour long chess tournament match.

The students are all put into rooms based on the medium they will be using, and then they are given their onsite project to complete within the next 3 hours. There is no cheering... those working are quiet and concentrated, probably with headphones on. Those watching, if there are any, don't cheer and usually try not to make any noise so as not to disturb the creative process.

In my youth my parents would always come to every event that I participated in and alot of times they would bring with them a video camera so as to preserve those precious moments for a lifetime. This competition isn't really something that your parents come to videotape.

As a teacher I get to help by sitting in the printmaking room and making sure that none of the high schoolers say anything except,'can you pass me that pair of scissors' or 'so how about those brewers'. I can't wait...