Sometimes you just have to walk away.

So sayeth Ben Harper.

Class was wierd last night. I've been flu-ey all week, so lord knows my attention span and drama-tolerance were both shot to hell. I'm there early, 'cause I had to make a sample project. Yet not until after dinner does the site supervisor remember to tell me that we aren't going to be in our normal room because there is a rescheduled dance workshop that will be using our space. I know she had a bad day. And really, I understand that. But we wasted the first 20 mins. of class schlepping paint buckets, dropcloths, brushes, paper, etc. etc. to the other room and basically it wasn't really a big deal . . . it was just painfully annoying. And the girls were pissed off. Diva and Highway got up in Miss A's face: "Why you all gotta dance in our room?"

I mean, it's great that they feel ownership over the space - and they should - it has their art and and all sorts of brainstorms and whatnot all over the walls. But they were already crabby to begin with because the site management decided to block MySpace from the internet. Highway and Twin were outraged - Highway came into class and normally she loves loves loves painting - but she was not havin' it yesterday.

I think it was an interesting decision on the part of the site. I mean, you read all the horror stories about young women meeting creepos on the internet with resulting degrees of badness. And yet . . . I dunno. Last week we were working on this painting project - making personal flags. I asked the girls to design and then paint a flag that incorporated three symbols: one for themselves, one for their family (whatever that meant to them), and one for a community to which they belong. Highway totally drew this really intricate computer - logged into MySpace. Digital communities are real. And maybe for some of them, certainly more supportive communities than others in their lives. It's a dilemma.

So anyways, we were painting in the dining room last night. I wanted to try out a bit of a more technical exercise, just to see how it worked. So we did some basic color theory, sort of. I think they got the idea of gradation with black, white, and grey more than with an actual color, but it was interesting to watch. And for me to (re)realize that there is a big difference between only teaching a specific skill versus hiding it in concepts and themes (which may or may not be embraced or ignored). Next week we're continuing with more painting. Painted and collaged quilts based in the Gee's Bend tradition (if you don't know about them, check out www.quiltsofgeesbend.com).

Now I have to go wait tables. I haven't been to that job since Monday - got my shift on Wednesday covered - so it's back to reality.