Home of Andrew Low (now deceased) - he was married to Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts of Amercia. She became deaf on her wedding day when someone accidentally threw rice in her ear.	To my word, I stayed home this weekend. So far, I’ve been busy with schoolwork (no, not because I’ve been traveling and “goofing off” as you might think!). Last week I had a midterm for my contemporary art history class and I think I did pretty good – I can’t afford to have too much confidence and find out I did poorly. I’m hoping I got an A or at least a very high B. Then I’ll breathe.
Right now I’m working on six paintings (yes, SIX!) – but not at once. For my life painting, we have an in-class assignment where we paint a nude (yes, male, but he’s 50-60 years old so don’t get any weird ideas) and we’re concentrating on his back. In this particular setup, he’s sitting so his back is to all of us and he has a long vertical mirror in front of him and where I stand, I can see part of his face down to his shoulders – kind of tricky trying to paint a mirrored image. For our homework in life painting, we’re working on 3 different self-portraits (again!) but this time in color. Each one is due a week from each other and we’re to tone our canvases a different color (red, green, and yellow) so it’d help with the mood of the painting.	The painting I'm working on -- it's NOT finished so don't start showering me with harsh criticism! (sorry the picture doesn't do justice - kind of blurry)
My dad would remember this house as one of the VERY FEW homes in the historic district that doesn't fit in (too modernized compared to the others). I do wonder why it was built in the first place.	For oil painting class, we’re also working on a nude model (haven’t started yet). We had to make our own canvas stretchers OURSELVES – meaning we had to go to the hardware store (Dad’s favorite two words in the whole wide world) and buy the lumber, cut it ourselves and so forth. For homework, we’re to paint a landscape – it can be right out of the bedroom window or in a garden or down the street. I haven’t decided yet what to paint. I enjoy this class because we’re offered different techniques and styles in painting. We’re also encouraged to work on different set-ups – still lifes, landscape, people, etc.
I still haven’t been able to go out much in Savannah for a night in the town (surprise, surprise). So many tourists are sighted around here in the historic district these days … there is a tour given on a horse carriage and sometimes I get stuck behind waiting for the horse to get out of the way (going 5 mph?!?!). I also see many packed trolley tours (my dad and I went on one of those our first trip here) but they do indeed travel much faster but make frequent stops to point out interesting sights.	Is it a Castle among the squares in Savannah? Nope, it's a church built to look like a medieval castle!
Betye Saar's artwork is displayed in this art gallery just down the street from where I live.	Savannah does have its share of celebrity visits. Lara and Kylie – my closest friends here at SCAD – got the opportunity to meet Jamie Kennedy. He’s one of the guys in all the Scream movies. I would have gone but I chose to stay home and work on the paintings. They also swear that they saw Matt Damon, Robert Redford, and Katie Holmes, the girl who plays Joey on Dawson’s Creek. I myself haven’t had the chance to meet any of those Hollywood celebrities but I did get to see Betye Saar. She’s discussed in my contemporary art history class as one of the well-known issue-based artists. She did a lot of collage work using images of black history, Aunt Jemima, and slavery.
Often times, I hang out with Lara and Kylie - we usually hang out at their dorm, watch our favorite shows (Dawson’s Creek and Felicity rocks) and maybe head on down to the computer lab so we can fool around on AOL (ha ha).	The crazy three -- me, Kylie, and Lara (let's not forget Spotty the cat!) horsing around in their dorm room.
Sarahlena would love this - one of the few gothic-style churches in Savannah.	One of the little things people don’t know about SCAD is that all the classes are small – maybe up to 20 people each – so we have a lot of one-on-one time with our professors. My teacher in life painting continues to learn sign language (I once caught sight of his “Joy of Signing” book – a book I recommended he get!) – he uses his skills when he talks to me about my paintings. Sometimes he’d throw in a sign or two during his class announcements. Once, while talking about an assignment we had to do in class, he turned to me and signed the word (without voicing) “boring!”… My interpreter asked me later if she should have voiced for him (since that’s her job – voicing me and all). I thought that was pretty cute.
In oil painting class, my teacher’s much quieter but I can tell she knows a lot about what she’s teaching. Every time I ask her a question, she has an answer for everybody. But I can sort of tell not everybody thinks highly of her – many times I’ve come to class to discover that maybe 3-5 students aren’t showing up. I do think she’s a good teacher regardless what anyone thinks!	Me and Darren Reed, along with Spotty (this was taken in South Carolina).
I used this same photograph for Kylie's surprise 21st birthday party invitations.	My contemporary art history teacher’s really good – I know this because another deaf graduate student told me he has her listed as one of the advisors for his thesis. I was also told she’s taught for classes with a deaf student before so she’s thoroughly familiar to what to do. She’s also nice enough to make sure the television’s set to captioned mode whenever she shows a video (she shows videos in every class, by the way!).
Right now, in this “journalistic entry” I’ve been trying to keep everybody up-to-date with the little things that have been going on in my life. I hope things continue to go well for everybody and I still very much miss you guys over yonder!!!	All smiles - Lara, me, and Kylie. Have a good week!

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