It's been great to get back to doing something that I have a true passion for. While I could see myself becoming a teacher sometime in the future, right now I want to work on my art craft, and grad school allows me to do that. But it was such a great opportunity to be able to be a public school teacher in another country for an entire year. The skills that I learned as being a teacher in Korea will be skills that will be with me for the rest of my life.
One thing that is great about grad school is that I have three day weekends, which means that I'm able to make weekend trips. While traveling through out Asia I realized that there is much of America that I have not yet seen. One seems to forget actually how large America really is, I mean it's huge. Sometimes America can seem boring to travel, due to the over suburbanization of Walmarts and McDonalds, but there is still plenty of unique and independent minded cities throughout the nation. A few of the unique cities I visited since I've been back are Breckenridge, CO, Alexandria, VA, Washington D.C., and Savannah, GA. All of those cities have rich and deep American culture and a since of strong identity, an identity that is not that of Walmart and other corporate chains. And it's this independence and entrepreneurship that is abundant in these cities that I find inspiring. I hope that future communities in America will look to these cities for inspiration and wisely plan the infrastructure and culture layout of the city, because I think being able to walk or ride a bike around a community is pretty important.
I was able to visit my sister and her family in Alexandria, VA, which is right outside of D.C. Henry, my nephew, is growing quick and is a blast to be around. I'll be visiting them again for Thanksgiving. Their neighborhood is excellent, they can walk to the library or any other small store that they would need, and the metro, which goes directly to central D.C. is only about a half mile walk. Then last weekend I met my brother in Savannah, GA, which is another beautiful city.
Grad school is very educational of course, but I'm trying to stay busy with my side projects as well. Also on a note of interest, last week Vincent Laforet came and spoke at SCAD in Atlanta, here is his website: http://vincentlaforet.com/ and also gave a workshop that I found useful.
Instead of a thesis paper for grad school I have to do a thesis project, which will be a movie. I have the movie already down in my head, now I just need to put it on paper. Possibly the most important part of the film process will be getting funding. I plan to apply for various grants from organizations that support art projects, films, or graduate theses. But the most potent way I see myself funding the project is through micro-financing it through small donations, made nationally. I'll be making a website explaining my project sometime next year with my estimated cost of the movie. The movie will be slightly political in nature, so I believe people will help support an art that supports their views.
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