August Update

Hello Patrons!  I've just completed my first week of a 9 week high school teaching gig.  I haven't taught high school since 2009 (though I have taught many, many other kinds of art centers and recreation programs and online courses since then), so the hard part for me involved managing 30 students and following classroom rules laid down by the regular teacher I'm replacing.  Teaching is so much easier when you don't have to threaten students over hats and cell phones and grades, but there's a lot of good stuff that goes with working in a high school, and it's only temporary so it's more an attitude and sleep-schedule adjustment on my part.

During this time, I can't travel much, but I have so much model video and half-finished animation projects, it's good to be able to focus on that rather than planning the next thing.  

I'm also wrangling some new gear by virtue of selling off 60 of my sculptural masks to stores around Phoenix and Tucson.  I got a new guitar, 2 new cameras, and a lot more, with my eye on a 6 piece Lavalier mic set for professional filming and a medium format camera.  Not only do these local "arts and entertainment exchange" places give you credit for trade-in, they also give teachers 20% off.    

One thing about this Byzantine transactional system- I started July being determined to get rid of all my sculptural masks, now I'm making more because of the kind feedback I got from all the places I took the masks to.  Luckily- another perk of teaching art in a high school- I get free access to a kiln.  Take every advantage, I say!

I'm also challenging myself to make a Lo-Fi synthwave/ vaporwave or hip hop track a day for stock music purposes.  There was a call out for such things on the site I contribute to (Pond5) and honestly, when it's August and fucking hot I love to have a daily creative goal to get me through to the other side.  Every day, make a new retro 80s hiphop or synth song.  It's fun!  Some of this was part of my new Udemy "Electronic Music In Garageband iOS" course I put up for $10+ patrons this month!

The image above, BTW, is from my new "Cartoon Me" way of doing YouTube/ Tutorial videos- so I don't have to set up lights or get a haircut, just record audio and send it to my alternate universe animated version in his bunker.

One more daily challenge- on my 2 hour lunch break, script pages for my animation projects.  It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, clever or boring.  Just put type words to get over the hump.  

Teaching, scripting, sculpting, music making- producing whatever I can in whatever circumstances I have.  Thanks for your continued support!