Present Joys

The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that. The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the reader will most certainly go into it.

I’m one-and-a-half weeks into the fall 2011 semester! So I thought I’d take a minute to write down my first impressions of my classes. I’ll probably think this is hilarious when I re-read it at the end of the semester.

• Figure drawing with Boryana Rusenova Ina. She seems cool and nice, and the homework looks like it’ll be manageable. It’s fun being on the second floor of AMF because we are all alone up there. Pretty sweet deal for a monday 8am class.
• Electronic publishing with Kimberly Burghy. I can already tell this will be a terrible class. Lots of computer busywork. I don’t think the teacher and I will become friends. At least, not without significant effort.
• Photo I with Barbara Schwartz. The teacher struck me as a little absent-minded but very kind and personable. I’d never explored CCAD’s media studies department and darkroom, so it was fun to do that. Not excited about the material costs in this class, but overall it looks to be pleasant and not-too-stressful.
• Scientific applications for the artist with Julie Posey. This is a weird class; most everyone else are juniors and seniors. I balked when I first saw the syllabus, but I don’t think the work will be unbearable. The teacher is definitely a queer bird but she’s growing on me. Curious to see how this class will end up.
• Team ad concepts with Marcia Tabler. I was dreading having to be in this team class and do team things, but being with Marcia Tabler helped ameliorate the pain. She is a great person who I already know and enjoy on a personal level, so this doesn’t really feel like a new class.
• Illustration methods with Benton Mahan. This class is two three-hour periods on wednesday, before and after lunch. The vibe is very similar to my freshman design class, which was one of my favorites. I’m looking forward to having that long span of time to just work work work. The teacher is gentle and kind and a generally wonderful guy.
• Ad concepts with Mark Burleigh. The highlight of the week. He kept our attention for the whole 3-hour class period just by lecturing in a very off-the-cuff manner. I’ve been waiting for a design teacher like this!
• I’m also doing Intro to anthropology as an “online course”. I have no clue how this is going to go. My plan is to work as far ahead as I possibly can.

All-in-all, my schedule this year isn’t that much different from freshman year’s: I’ve got laid-back studio classes in the morning, comfortable lunch breaks monday and wednesday, lunchtime LA classes during lunch on tuesday and thursday, and ad classes tuesday and thursday afternoons.

Yesterday’s M’Cheyne Bible reading was Ezekiel 7 and all I could think of was this video.

The last shirt of the summer, made from a 100% linen fabric I got on sale at Sew to Speak in Clintonville. It’s very good quality stuff, extremely springy and lineny. It was also a giant pain to work with: all the areas where I had to match stripes, like the sleeve plackets, had to be carefully basted by hand before they could be stitched together. But I think it was worth the extra work. The fabric itself was woven with stripes running not parallel with the selvage, as with most fabrics, but perpendicular to it. As you can see, this meant that all the stripes on this shirt run 90° to the way they’d be on a “normal” striped shirt. This presented an unusual challenge.

As you can see, there is no attached collar. The collar band has buttonholes on both ends so I can wear a separate collar attached with studs. I’ve got a couple white cotton collars in my closet I made a few years ago that fit pretty well, and I plan to make a few more detachable collars from what remains of the linen stuff. Perhaps on labor day.

Having no attached collar means this shirt’s neckband will always need to be fastened. So I figured I’d play up the formality aspect and make french cuffs instead of the usual barrel ones. I don’t particularly like french cuffs, but I enjoy wearing cufflinks every now and then, and I thought this exceptional fabric would look nice with fancier cuffs. There is no breast pocket, because this is a dress shirt, in the true sense of the term.

I’m taking my vacation this very last week of summer before school starts, so this shirt concludes my one shirt every week project! It’s been a really fun and educational summer! I feel much more confident in my shirtmaking abilities. I also feel good for having documented my work every single week. Thanks for following along with my adventures!