Things I Like [vol 1]

I know that I write a lot about how things are not going well and so on. You would think I'm a bitter old bitch who's never happy with anything, so I better change a little of style and write about the things that I like.

The first thing on my mind at the moment is school - Université Marc Bloch de Strasbourg and my field of Arts Visuels. I really like Palais Universitaire - the building of arts - it's huge and beautiful and has this artistic feeling to it. (Here's the view from the outside, from the inside and from behind with the park.)

A little about the subjects: my favorite out of all theory classes is the Actuality and Perspectives of Contemporary Art. I learn a lot, see new things and hear new names and what's most interesting - everything we learn is about Now, no history, no old conservative guys fighting about whether painting is more important than poesy or vice versa.

Then there's monsieur Goulon, my teacher in Atelier Gravure and Atelier Polyvalent. He is the best teacher ever, who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it to make our classes as productive as possible and show us the way to knowledge:) Plus, he doesn't stop making all these sarcastic (not really French-like) jokes. It's always fun and educating. He knows everything we'd get the impression.

In Gravure, our first assignment was to make an autoportrait, print it on a blank postcard and mail it to him. After that we were making nude croquis, which as I've learned is quite rare here.

In Atelier Polyvalent we have the whole semester to make a personal work and a research on the subject. I guess it's a good training for our final projects, but unfortunately I haven't had time to really work on that yet. I am researching the movement of Mail Art and my work was supposed to be a huge post pack with as many stamps as it takes to mail me to Belgium (it is actually impossible, I already asked at the post office. I should loose more than 30kg to make it, tant pis pour moi). When I told about this idea to M. Goulon he didn't seem to be superinspired so maybe I should get a new one... But what???

Another great class is English: we sit in a circle and talk, every week two studens have to present their personal work. It's very interesting to find out what others are doing and what they think. To me it's a real zen relax class where I can sit back and feel good.

Of course there are plenty of other subjects (12) and teachers, but as I decided to keep up a positivist line, I'd rahter not write about all the boring, stressful, difficult things.