Obviously I haven’t written in a while and it’s because not only have classes started, but the internet connection here at the Kehoe Center (the dorm) has been up and down, with an emphasis on down. Anyway, I thought that I would describe the classes I’m taking and all the teachers who are a part of the UGA Cortona program.
My first class during the week is Book Arts and Paper making, which focuses mostly on making books using different types of book binding. We’ll be making paper as well during the semester, although the class doesn’t focus on it. My teacher’s name is Sarah (yes, another Sarah - to distinguish her we students like to call her Bookarts Sarah) and she’s incredibly enthusiastic in this overcharged with caffeine but completely hilarious and fun type of way – which is a good thing, ESPECIALLY at eight o’clock in the morning! She’s probably somewhere in her mid to late twenties and in the process of finishing up her Masters degree. So far this class is a lot of fun, although it feels very much like I’m five years old again and playing with paper. We spent the entire first class learning different ways to fold paper to make what Sarah called “down and dirty bookmaking,” or in other words the simplest book forms possible. Then we decorated these books with collages.
My other studio class is Advanced Drawing. All three drawing classes – beginning, intermediate, and advanced – are held together, which means that advanced students have an independent study with the teacher. So while the other students draw in the classroom from models, etc, we have the option of working on our own, which means that I don’t actually have to go to class. *yay* It sounds like we’ll have to pump out a fair amount of work, but nothing unreasonable. We can work on whatever we want (although most of us want to incorporate an element of Italian culture in our work) and just have to check in with the teacher before and after the class meeting time. The teacher, Rebecca, is a former student of the Cortona program (which has been in existence for almost forty years now). While studying here she fell in love with an Italian and now lives here in Cortona with her husband and two daughters (no worries, Mom, haven’t met anyone yet…mwahaha!). She’s a good person to go to for any questions about Italy (with her unique perspective that comes from being an American married to an Italian) and speaks Italian like a local.
The other expert on Italy is Marco, our Italian teacher. He’s probably in his late twenties or early thirties and has the dark Italian looks going for him, which means that most of the female students are in love with him, lol. =) He speaks English fluently, but with a very thick accent, and has the very-Italian habit of speaking with his hands. That can be kinda funny when he’s got chalkboard dust all over his fingers and, without realizing it, gets chalk all over his usually very clean and stylish clothes. We bump into him in all the local hangouts and bars and apparently he’s a pretty good soccer player, too (according to everyone who got together to play soccer on Sunday). During class Marco only speaks Italian, although sometimes he’ll throw in some English when he sees that we’re all totally and completely lost. So far I feel like I’ve had a lot thrown at me and I haven’t necessarily remembered most of it. But then again, I’m a very visual person and I think I need to spend some time every day just working on my Italian vocabulary with a nice thick stack of flash cards. =D
Art History is taught by Sarah K., whom I think I already described earlier. She’s really nice, though she has a habit of using a lot of “ums” during her lecture (each of which I am most painfully aware of, thank you Toastmasters!). I think that this might be one of her first experiences teaching, which would explain some of the reasons that people don’t enjoy her two hour, yes two hour, art history lecture. She’s got that idealism that new teachers have. I’m sure you know what I mean, right? It’s when a teacher is so sure that she can make everyone understand everything, so she goes so deeply into every random subject that she loses everyone completely. And when a teacher gives out tons and tons of readings (goes so far, in fact, as to print out tons and tons and tons of copies so that everyone can have their own copy), but doesn’t have any kinds of tests or even real discussions about the readings, that's being way to confident that people will actually read them. I’m sure that in about five or so years she’ll be a fabulous teacher, she just needs experience. She definitely knows her subject incredibly well and can be very interesting.
Another teacher who’s fairly important is Chris, the second-in-command here and the ceramics teacher. He’s the teacher that I have to help for a certain amount of hours every week because I’m a stipend student. He’s kinda funny…like he always seems really quiet and a little sad, but then every once and a while this great sense of humor pops out. He’s about thirty or so, and…actually, I don’t really know too much more about him. One of the first nights I was here I listened with great amusement to my roommates speculate about him and his life. The director of the program is Rick, who’s about in his sixties or so. He’s hilarious and has been working for this program for about thirty years or so, I believe. He knows a ton about Italy and makes tours very interesting with all of his personal comments and advice. He doesn’t stay in Italy year round – he only gets to come up for the beginning and end of each semester. The rest of the time he spends in Georgia doing the nitty-gritty part of running the program and raising money for it.
There are a couple of other teachers in the program: Spencer is a younger guy, about mid-twenties, with the funniest handlebar mustache. He runs the pod-casting and creative writing class and the main love of his life is his video camera, which I think is permanently connected to his hand. He's really into sixties looking clothes (think: BRIGHT orangey/red sweater) and he's got this hilarious but weird sense of humor. Then there are two older guys (meaning in their sixties), Richard who teaches art ed, and Jim, who teaches metals and jewelry making. Laurie is the photo teacher, and I don’t know much about her, except she’s pretty quiet and also still finishing up her masters. And I think that covers just about everyone, except for Jacob who gets that funny position of not-student/not-teacher/and RA. So all combined, that makes what? Eleven people? Add a wife or two, and you’ve got the number of faculty who’re here. They all live somewhere in town, or fairly close by, and most of them come on all the trips with us.
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