No Time.... or didn't make Time?

Yes, I have been neglecting my blog for weeks. Not that I didn't want to write, but there were just too much things happening and my mind was too busy to sit down and write about the things that were happening. During this time of the year my work is sometimes manic, or it feels like manic. There are visits to trainee's, exams, meetings etc. etc. It's every year like this and every year I am trying to do it different but it never works. Guess that is everywhere in the field of education because also my colleagues from other schools in Europe have the same experience. Maybe it has to do with getting older that it takes so much energy. Things I did easy years ago do take more energy now and it takes more time to recover. It is not complaining but it is a fact of going through different life stages. Not time sometimes can be not making time for things you want to do like writing my blog. But here I am: back on track and only 2 weeks of work to go and than I have so much time to write before going on holiday to Shetland again.
One of the highlights of the year is the final fashion-show in my school were students show their final work. Every year I am very proud of them when they show their outfits on stage. As always there are differences but the energy they put in is mazing. I hear sometimes elderly people complaining about the attitude of the youth, and than my reply is: come to our fashion show and see the passion of my students. I loved this quote on the back of a shirt from a youngster collection by Lana. My 2nd years short course (2 years) did show and I am always touched by them. They come from such different and sometimes difficult backgrounds and to see them on stage is always a joy for me. They showed a black and white outfit with bags made of felt with the theme: Comics. Ovan showed his collection in different shades of black with lights who respond on magnetic fields. He is now up for the National Competition to become Most excellent Medium level student of 2010 and voting will start again from the 1th of July onwards till the show in October.
There is the usual mess behind the scenes. Strange shoes on the floor....... Strange make-up and hair..... Bram couldn't come to the show for the first time which felt rather strange to me. He always was sitting front row over all the years I have worked on fashion-shows but because of his health situation this year it was not possible for him to come. The results of the blood-tests taken by the molecular doctor showed a big lack in important vitamins and minerals, so he gets injections and has to take many pills. Till now the results are not really visible he feels, but I think it will take lots of months till he will feel a little better (at least that is what I hope for him of-course) I notice with him a slight irritation that things are getting so slow and sometimes I even feel he is slightly giving up the whole thing. We have of-course lots of talks about this and I even gave him the suggestion to speak with a counsellor about the fact how to deal with this all. Sometimes it can be very good to talk about this with a stranger is my experience. Dealing with lack of energy and every day dealing with this must be very hard to do. Till now we manage and my biggest mourning is really over. I can handle it much better than last year at this time. Hopefully the holiday will do something positive for him.
Yes..... and what else did happen. I finished my first Art-coach project with a very positive result. The firm I did coach on creativity is very enthusiastic and I think I really can do this work. I loved it to work on it and feel that that might be a road to take more in the future. After summer-holiday I get another firm to coach and in November there is a training at the Art school in Utrecht and than I will get my certificate. In my wildest dreams I have this idea to start a business with this topic. Not sure yet if I would like to do this alone or in a group but time will show this.
My artwork is still not very moving and because of that I am doing a little photography project on Facebook. I take everyday a photo with the title: Colour of the day and here is an example: and 1 from a detail of a garment I am wearing that day like this one from the back of my shirt: It focusses me every day on something to look at and I notice by myself that my view towards the world around me gets more aware.
One of the nice things of my job is visiting trainees in various firms. Over the last weeks I have travelled many times to the west of Holland. I was in Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Arnhem. It takes a few hours to go there from my hometown Deventer. Usually I have 1 or 2 meetings a day and the rest of the day I usually use for visiting the Sculpture Exhibition from Manolo Valdés and I was blown away by it. The exhibition is every year at the beautiful Lange Voorhout and is really worth a visit if you are in The Hague.
While in Rotterdam I went after my meeting at Marlies Dekkers (were my student really did great and some of her designs will be in a coming collection) I went for a walk which ended in museum Boijmans van Beuningen were I was impressed by the work from Olafur Eliasson and stayed there quite a long time to get the real feeling of his installations. Amazing what he does with light and movement. I also saw this funny man peeping in at a room in the museum. There was really made a hole in the floor and it made me smile... Last Thursday I was in Amsterdam to have a talk with my student at Claes Iversen (I love his designs and he is now having this real beautiful house near a canal were he is making his salon, and he is a real nice person.) After the meeting I went to see the exhibition: From Matisse to Malevich at De Hermitage. To see all those beautiful paintings in real made me very happy and after lunch I went back to see some again. So next to the hard work there is some time to load up the battery......
This weekend is about doing nothing and relaxing in a way to conquer the last 2 busy weeks to come....
O yes.. and knitting.... because after al this blog is called Slip, knit.. meditate. I have been doing some test knitting for Stephen West and a really nice scarf and cap came out (not allowed to show pictures yet).It is knitted in beautiful Berocco Ultra Alpaca yarn which I purchased in London in May. Well, this sneak preview is allowed I think. Some UnFinished socks for Bram will be finished this week so he can wear them this summer.I did start them so long ago and I really want them done. They are knitted in Araucania yarn in beautiful shades. Bram only likes plain and very simple socks and this is such a mindless knit which I like to do now in this busy period. Some more socks need to be finished and my endless time taking lace shawl really needs to be finished (really do not like lace but have to finish it I think) I am not knitting everyday at this moment, not feeling up for it every day, but still love it to do..

Reacties

  1. Heerlijk om allemaal te lezen! En ja, het is moeilijk om geduldig af te wachten of het op een gegeven moment beter zal gaan. Sterkte met de laatste twee weken, ik moet er nog drie. We kunnen het!

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  2. Bedankt, voor weer een zeer boeiend en ontroerende en grappige en educatieve post!!
    Heb er enorm van genoten!!
    Ik hoop dat het met Bram straks beetje bij beetje de goede kant op gaat.
    Maar beide zitten jullie in een andere levensfase, dus beiden zullen jullie anders met het thema omgaan. Sterkte!!!!!

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