A bare-limbed tree, autumn decor already a crunching carpet on the lawn, stood silhouetted before its bright red-orange neighbor. I’ve been watching these trees change all semester. Add in a backdrop of dramatic slate storm clouds, and how could I resist?

Here’s the relatively quick sketch I did to capture the scene (black pen and colored pencil – click for larger version):

View from my room III

Usually, I can’t decide. But when my Hudson valley campus is decked out in full-blown autumn colors, my vote swings in favor of chill fall air, feet crunching through drifts of leaves, and myriad shades of red, brown, orange, and yellow.

Yes, I do, on occasion, meander across campus with my camera. Click for the larger versions!

Sunset Lake

View from the room

Branch of doom

Red glow tree

I took a sculpture class this semester on a whim. I enjoy art, but I’ve never done much sculpture, and I haven’t taken an art class in years–so why not?

The first project I did was an exploration of mass. I sculpted a head from clay (the professor modeled, because he couldn’t get an actual model), made a plaster waste-mold from it, then did a plaster casting. Everyone else in the class did essentially the same thing–sure, there were variations in the way the heads were sculpted, but we all made heads.

The second project, however, was open-ended. We were given an introduction to a selection of sheet metals, wire, and tools; we were told to think about space rather than mass, and that we should include repetition and variation in the work. And that was it.

Do you want to know what I created? Take a look! I titled it “Selves.” I think it turned out pretty darn cool. (But I wouldn’t have created it if I thought otherwise.)