POST FOR THE WEEK


A lot has evolved--as if that's the way a class should go!

The books weren't ordered, the computer lab
wasn't reserved until the night before I'd wanted
it scheduled. It's been a spring opening term
for the record book.

It's okay.

We'll slowly explore various art forms and use writing
as a field for expressing whatever we see. It may
take a while to get into gear and hum however.

1. No class Monday, so on Wednesday we meet in our regular
classroom (and I am going to begin at 5:30 sharp) and then we
will go to the computer lab. We will write two "poems."
Your first two poems--which you wrote on Wednesday--
are the search engine poems which should be, now,
hard copy. If they aren't hard copy make them so.
At the end of this third class period we'll have four poems. We
add more each week. Just come ready to do whatever is asked
of you. The spontaneity is good for the soul.

2. HAVE THE AMERICAN HYBRID BOOK
AND THE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM BOOK
AND THE 11 X 17 SKECTHBOOK
IN YOUR POSSESSION ON WEDNESDAY.

3. I handed out several handouts. You will need them.
You will need the sheet with the writing prompts. You
will need the packet with the Ashbery poem on the front.

4. As already assigned, read the poems by Ashley Capps
I handed out. Read the Joshua Beckman poems and
the poems by Mary Ruefle in American Hybrid. Don't worry
about understanding them completely.

5. Look at the paintings and read the text on pages 26-31,
on Pollock, Gorky, and Hofmann. Go ahead and be skeptical.
Think of the idea of chaos, and the idea of order. Think of
the sentences you find in search engines as similar to
different colors of paint, or pieces of collage. That is--think
of how placing them actively together creates energy
and communicates energy.

We only meet once next week, and that's partly lab time.

Be patient with the ambiguity right now.

That's all you need to be responsible for at this point.

Slowly, we will integrate and begin to brainstorm and actually
craft pages of collage and text. I think you will want to
make sure you have glue sticks and scissors and some
old magazines on hand. Eventually we will work some
in class on these visual aspects . . .