Cameron

Wow, I’ve already done so much and met so many new people this school year! That is probably why I am so tired. Luckily, a week of vacation has come to rescue me in my time of my need.

I’m currently at the airport, about to fly home to So-Cal. I’m ready for a little sunshine, and I’ll be really glad to hang out with my family, friends, and pets. Still, it’s hard not to think about what I’ve got coming up before winter break. I’m about halfway through my stone carving project (my arm hurts!), I’ve yet to start my drawing of a local landscape, and I’m already thinking about what I want to say in my self-evaluation.

I’m also looking at some classes that I might take during Winter Quarter. There is an interesting program called “Sustainable Forestry” that has caught my attention, as well as one called “Protected Areas?”. I am also looking into taking a woodworking class that meets once a week in the evenings. Our wood shop is the jam! We get access to really nice tools and facilities, and have great faculty and staff for support.

I’m also now officially a student representative on the Campus Land Use Committee,  and I’ve been thinking a lot about our last meeting. There was a proposal for posting “No Recreational Skateboarding” signs, which concerned me, but it wasn’t until a few days later that I got an email dialogue going with the members of CLUC about why this would be a mistake, at least with the present wording of the signs. Evergreen allows students to skateboard on campus, which is uncommon where I come from, and so I treasure that freedom. But skateboarding has caused some damage on campus, and so there has been interest from Campus Facilities to try and prevent any skateboarding that might further this damage. Anyways, this is not a new debate in the world of skateboarding, but I think it is really cool that at Evergreen, the students are allowed to engage faculty and staff members and try to reach a solution that works well for all the groups. I’ll keep you posted on the future of the signs.

Well, I’m about to board my flight (I wish that meant I got to skate onto the plane), so I’ll leave you to enjoy your weekend! Thanks for reading

It’s already Week 8, and I’m really surprised because I’m actually not stressed out. Not one bit. I think it’s because I put a lot of effort into balancing my energy between work and recreation. I have been trying to stay ahead on my school work by doing little chunks of it whenever I can (this is a simple skill that has taken me my whole academic career to engage with, but I’ve been reaping the benefits). It also helps that my work has been fun and engaging; right now we’re doing stone carving (so much freaking fun, I’ll post pictures soon!), we’re generating a large (26″ x 40″) drawing of a place where landscape and the urban environment meet, and preparing a presentation on a landscape artist (I chose Thomas Kinkade, since I feel that we can learn a lot from bad art, especially when it’s been successful). Anyways, since I’m on track with my school work, I’ve been doing lots of things I want to do.

Earlier this week, my friend Mitch and I went to go get acupuncture. It was my first time doing it, but it was at a really cool place called Community Acupuncture Studio, and it was free because it was their one year anniversary. And it felt incredible. As soon as the little needles went in, I just instantly felt overwhelmingly euphoric, and I just closed my eyes and napped for about a half hour, and came out feeling peaceful and clear-headed.

On Friday, I went to work and then did a little stone carving, and that night I went skateboarding (it was like 40 degrees but whatev’s) and then went to an awesome show at the Northern, Olympia’s all ages venue. I saw Julianna Barwick, Arrington de Dionyso (of Old Time Relijun), and Rain Machine (Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio + a band). It was pretty sweet, and they all have really powerful vocal qualities.

On Saturday, it actually wasn’t raining, and after I got done working on my presentation, I got to go skateboarding again for like 2 hours!

Then on Sunday, after I put in some more work on my presentation, my friends and I actually played a show at the Northern. We’re called City on the Bridge, which is a project started by Mitch. Lots of our friends were there, and the other bands were amazing! It was a perfect playbill (Sleep Whale, The Long Mornings, Darin Hanlon, and us). And it was the biggest show I’ve played since I’ve been here.

I also want to mention that this whole week there was the Olympia Film Festival at the Capitol Theater, our local indie movie theater and home to the Olympia Film Society. Every year they conclude the fest with “All Freaking Night”, where they play like five horror movies in a row starting at midnight. I’m bummed I didn’t get to go to any movies, they showed some really cool films and actually a lot of rare features.

Well I gotta get some rest so I can keep up all this work/fun. Thanks for reading!

I spent this last week working on a really interesting assignment for my class Studio Projects: Land and Sky. We were challenged to make multiple plaster casts of an object and then install it into a landscape to evoke an interesting relationship between the two. I’ve always been interested in installation art, and I was really excited to work on this project. Evergreen’s campus also provided lots of opportunities for a site, and I fell in love with the one I chose to work in. Amazingly enough it was a place on campus that I’ve never been to before.

I was struck by the white trunks of some dead cedar trees and I was drawn this incredible stump that felt like an altar. I chose to cast a section of a branch I found at the site, and as I cast them, I set a steel wire in the base so that they could be stuck into the ground and stand up. When I led my class to it, I gave them all a stick that I collected form the site, and I asked that they leave it somewhere on their journey. That way, they would have a piece of the landscape to take with them on the trail, and since many people left their sticks at the altar stump, the piece became an interactive and shared experience.

Anyways, here are some pictures and my artist statement:

Artist Statement:

With its back turned to the well-known path and the towering buildings, an ancient ghost sits and quietly stares into the woods. It is visited by the sunrise and birds and leaves and moss, but rarely humans. Even though it is in plain view from the buildings, it just looks like a normal stump from there. But when you wander past the pavement and the garden and into the forest, careful not to step on any little mushrooms, you can stand face to face with the ghost stump, which opens up like and altar, letting you know you are in a special place. Looking around, you realize you have in fact entered an entirely different world, a secret room that is only noticeable once you are inside it. It is calm, private, and still, yet only a few feet away from the busy cement world. From here you can sense life and death slowly chasing each other in circles. How did you end up here? You followed a trail of small ghostly statues, barely visible except to those who know treasure lies just off the beaten path, and their story is what you make of it.