Unfinished Object

Our weekend was a whirlwind of shopping, cooking, partying, e-baying, hard labor, more shopping and homework (D’s not mine). The ‘enchiladas’ have been officially named ‘encharitas’ as they are a combination of enchiladas, burritos, and fajitas, and came out quite tasty - even if the snippy broad from TX didn’t think they were spicy enough. The party was pretty mundane, though I think my friend’s crowd and immediate family had fun. We were a little ‘outside’ the group, and not really in the mood to insinuate ourselves into the middle of it, so we sat down with my dad and step-mom and had a nice dinner off in one corner, stayed for cake and presents and slipped off home by 9:30. Honestly, the older I get, the sooner I’m ready to go home - heh.

Sunday I made some headway on the lanai decorating project. I ripped out the fence, (pic is right after the hurricane damage, but it does show the fence if you scroll down a bit), removed the potting stand and pulled up the pavers, trimmed the plants and gave the concrete a good scrub. I even repaired the wiring to the lanai speakers - which has been hanging from the ceiling since sometime last year. Shopping provided the perfect outdoor rug, and a side table. So, by early evening I was able to relax to music, a nice glass of wine and my book. There is still much to do, so I’m not quite ready to share a pic.

Probably the most interesting things I did this weekend (for me at least) were to shop for art supplies and to build an art portfolio for D ... both of which got me thinking about school. When I was in college, one of the things the school was most proud of was that when you finished your courses you would leave with a completed, presentable art portfolio. What this really meant was that each and every class expected you to present your assignments the same way. Each assignment was to be matted in a 20 x 30 mat (in a putrid putty color), then over wrapped in Mylar, and finally backed (to hide the taped Mylar) with paper in the same color with a small card in the upper right corner with your name and social security number. While it looked nice, you cannot imagine how freakin’ heavy your portfolio was by the second year. By my third year (I’m a slow learner), I began recycling these expensive mats for new projects and placing the old ‘keepers’ in a ringed portfolio like this one. Last night, I dusted my case, removed my projects and filled it with some of D’s computer graphics and drafting designs, wondering all the while if it was now archaic and if the folks at the job fair would be expecting him to bring in a laptop with a power point presentation. I started to say ‘I’d been away from graphics for a long time’, but on second thought, its really more fair to say I was never really got in.

I wasn’t a particularly good designer, just average, and let me tell you there are a lot of average graphic designers out there. I reckon most of truly average were put to pasture when desktop publishing took off. I graduated the year before the school started teaching computer graphics, and took a job at a farmers market. My title was graphic designer, in reality I was a glorified sign maker. I was pretty proud of it at the time - now I just shake my head at my own foolishness.

Enough time has passed, I guess, because there was surprising little pride or pain in taking that portfolio apart. In fact more than one piece went directly into the garbage can. I didn’t even feel as though I’d failed, or had wasted time and money – I just felt as though I’d moved on, changed, if you will. For good or ill, I couldn’t say, but I’m not disappointed with where I am today in the least. And that’s a pretty good place to be!

Posted by Shan on 04/24 at 03:38 PM
Enough About You • Permalink

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Unfinished Object

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