Slings & Arrows

Well summer has finally arrived! It will be my last summer of freedom for two years, since I will officially be attending university full-time this fall until 2010 (well a satellite campus of a university-but the tuition is u-sized & paper in the end is from a u). However, it will all be worth it in the end, despite my reservations about being a "good" mom/wife/insert role here while trying to satisfy my innate need to overachieve as a student. If nothing else, I hope I will be a good role model to our kids by proving that life long learning is possible.

The past few weeks have been a blur of field trips, art classes, baseball, soccer, birthday parties.....and on. Today is the first day in I can't remember when where we didn't have to rise early and "be" somewhere. Both kids slept in & I enjoyed some quiet time. I should have been working on my literature course that absolutely must be finished by August, but I chose to just take a breather.

In art-related news, I have two tiles to complete by July 15th for a group mural project which I am excited about. Our Cultural Centre is celebrating its 25th anniversary this fall, so our Club decided to create a mural to be permanently installed to commemorate the anniversary. A photograph was chosen from submissions & then broken down into one hundred pieces that were randomly assigned to the artists. Also, our Club is featured in a summer installation at the Esplanade & my life drawing group will be showing in September in the Cultural Centre Gallery. The show is entitled "Ourselves & Others" & features nudes & self-portraits of the twenty-odd participating artists. I have a self-portrait to start & finish for mid-August & I must clarify that the self-portraits do not have to be undraped! I have been toying with several concepts but have yet to lay brush to canvas. I will probably work from either a photograph or use a mirror, but I do not want to work a piece of pure realism. Ideas abound!

The sun is shining, with a smattering of cumulus clouds in the sky. I can't help but feel that the clouds are symbols of our time in this fleeting life. But of course, I hope that our lives have more substance than cloud. Sigh, this maudlin frame of mind is undoubtedly be due to the fact that Hamlet was on this morning (Branagh version from '96, which I prefer over the Gibson one), and of course I caught the famous soliloquy. Shakespeare really did have a way with words....