Back to School!!

For those of you that know me personally- you know how much I love to be in school!!! Last night I started a new class- Silkscreening. It was really intimidating but I feel like it's a great new way to challenge myself. Let's take a look at how I got to taking this class....

A long time ago in a land far away (Flagstaff, Arizona)- I went to visit a friend of mine who had moved to Flagstaff and was attending Northern Arizona University. I fell in love -as many people do- with the mountains, the desert and Arizona in general.  A few years later I felt the need to get the heck outta New York City. Life here has a way of not only fraying but chewing on your last nerve. I always had Arizona in the back of my mind. So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone- move to Flagstaff and go back to school. I was originally going to study to be a teacher but realized that I'm not super crazy about being in a classroom with 20+ rowdy kids. Not a good idea!! So I thought - hey I'm artistic let's get a BFA.  So I pored over the school catalog and settled on printmaking.  Imagine to my dismay that between the time I applied for school and the time I went to register for classes that 90% of the Art program had been eliminated. No more printmaking classes. That's when I changed my major to Jewelry and Metalsmithing.  I was only able to attend NAU for one year but it was one of the best years of my life!!

Fast forward to November of last year- I was on the goody bag committee for the NewNew's Winter Handmade Holiday Cavalcade. The committee was headed up by Laura of Fisk and Fern- an amazing printmaker.  I told her that I'd like to help print the goody bags.  Three of us met at SVA's printmaking lab and she showed us how to silkscreen. 200 bags later and I was hooked. OMG- it was so much fun!! All I could think of were the possibilities of what I had just learned. I spent half the night online researching silkscreening and I decided to try my hand at this.  A couple of weeks later I found SVA's continuing ed catalog in my lobby and I took it as a sign. After asking Laura to recommend a teacher, it was settled and I registered for the class. So here I am deciding what to make first.