Day 146

It was 95F (35C) today, and all furry creatures (and also largely hairless ones) felt very hot and lethargic.  Lily the cat spent many hours in the slight breeze afforded by the passage.  Matthew came home and said, "Oh look, it's a rug."  Because she is so old and diminished that she is just about flat when she lies stretched out!

I went to the opening of the art exhibition at the boys' school, and it is always interesting to compare it with my school. 

This is the first year for the boys in the beautiful new school building,  the 'greenest' school in Massachusetts.  There are three art teachers, each with their own huge fully-equipped studio, Photography/Graphic Design, Ceramics and Painting/Drawing. There is a data-projector and smart board in each room, an ipod jack with surround sound speakers, just everything state-of-the-art.  It is a public school, so it is free.   Apart from the ceramics, which we don't have, I think their art is of a similar standard to ours.  Instead of ceramics, we have quite a lot of sculpture.  And we are getting our own permanently mounted data projector installed over the summer!

Interesting also to see how they get people to attend the opening.  There is something called the National Art Honor Society, to which all high school art students can belong.  So each year they have a little ceremony with the induction of the new members, of which there are many. Members of the society do community service so it is a valuable society in many ways.  They also had a speaker this year, in the form of my friend who is an amazing commercial photographer.  He had a wonderful slideshow about which he spoke, evoking laughter and appreciation.

At our 'vernissage', we have children who give musical performances and little theater performances to try to draw the crowds.  Also, everyone here lives in one of two small towns so no one has far to come, whereas at my school people have to come from all over the place, sometimes from a location more than an hour away. 

The tradition at the boys' school is for the more senior members to provide cakes in the form of a famous artwork.  So tonight my portrait is the cake which Matthew made in the form of Shepard Fairey's Andre the Giant stencil, for which I provided all the ingredients, the supervision, and the encouragement, and which was the only cake to disappear completely in a matter of minutes.