thoughts on FotoFocus, staining, and my knee.

So, we are a few weeks into the semester and I had knee surgery because I could not make it without. No way could I walk that far, stand that long, and be paying attention to anything but my throbbing knee. So, I bit the bullet and it's just over a week later. I can walk again, no cane, no crutches and no walker but I forget to take it easy on the thing and every one in a while push a bit too hard. Like now, I am icing it because I just spent about a half hour leaning over the vanity I tried to stain and finish in a one coat process and it was a failure - a complete failure. So today I am using Stripeeze to rid the piece of the mess I applied yesterday. I should have stopped immediately after the first brushes, but thought my technique was the issue not the material.

I have stained and varnished all the doors and windows in this house and tons more things. But this MinWax Polyshades is the worst product on the market for refinishing or finishing for the first time. I followed the instructions to a T and it looked worse than if a 5 year old had been mucking about.
So, after stripping for a while, I must rest my knee with ice.

School is going ok. Classes are fine. Maybe better than fine. FotoFocus can be over soon enough for me. The banners are up around campus and look terrific. We got snubbed by Enquirer and FotoFocus for the article in last week's Sunday edition. That was disappointing but we have blitzed them with pictures, tweets, Facebook postings and I don't think they can miss that. I think we are going to have the jumbotron sign along 471 announce us so more folks will see that than the newspaper anyway. The ongoing issue is the uneasy relationship with the guy who runs Greaves. He is a bit of a prick, young and knows every so much more than anyone else. He makes snide comments about our use of another projector rather than their $40,000 one that is set to the wrong aspect ratio for the images and doesn't change easily. Anyway, that is a long story of a man peeing on all the bushes vs some one who wants to get things done well. I guess he is afraid that if he helps us do an event that looks spectacular, he will somehow look bad rather than be praised for a job so well done. Beats me. So little power, so little landscape and such a big fight. Academia.

Anyway, the shows should be wonderful, the work load is probably manageable if no one lets their head get too big and then lots will enjoy. I want to say, wow, wasn't that great. I have another nagging idea that the big FotoFocus folks think National Geographic photographers shows are not highbrow enough for the ART crowd from NYC, LA or themselves. My favorite photographers in the world do not work for Nat Geo, nor are those the books I collect, but and this is a big BUT, to do a show that will draw others to the galleries that would not normally set foot inside, to do transdisciplinary work that could be incorporated into curricula all over campus, you are not going to do a show of one of my favorites, won't happen. We are trying to be inclusive, not exclusive. We can teach about sustainability, world politics, global warming, other lands, other species and of course photography all in one place. That is what we chose to do. I only wish the main folks at FotoFocus could understand the shows and give us the credit we deserve because some folks have worked their asses off for over a year to have this happen. And one has given her energy and her wealth to support these efforts. I hate for her to be snubbed.