Schoooool's out for Winter... break! Doesn't sound the same does it? But, it sure feels the same. I won't be attending classes for about three weeks and it's great. Although, I'll probably be rattling around my place in about a week wishing college would start again.

If you're wondering Christmas will be spent quietly, just as I prefer. My family is too far away for this broke student to go visit and there is just a little too much drama there right now anyway...

For my friends that have been following my college trials and tribulations here's a quick update.

When I started at my new college, after moving from my hometown and old community college, I didn't know what to expect. Overall the classes have been great–I took a design class and some English classes. One of my English classes was taught by a PhD in Linguistics, what a great class, very cool. You don't know what you don't know, until you know it, or some such stuff.

The Design class is all based on the Adobe CS6 Suite of products–Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. I ended up renting the use of the Adobe Suite online from Adobe. It's not cheap, but I prefer to work at home on these projects, especially when the project gets big and takes a lot of time. I took this class once before at my old community college, but it didn't transfer. Which is okay, because I wanted to brush up on these skills and use the newest version of the Adobe Suite. Also I remember taking this class in my first year of college when I didn't know anything about computers, as in zip... nada... zilch. It was fun to spend less time wondering where the basic tools were and be able to focus on more advanced techniques. This is where I thank my instructor for letting me choose more advanced projects, so I could get more from the class,
Thanks Mr. _______.

This brings me to an explanation about the art displayed here. The first piece is my work, we were assigned with producing art work in Illustrator that was only comprised of rectangles. I did slip in a radial gradient in the background, but I still aced this assignment and I thought it added a bit of interest to the composition. At first I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do and then the instructor said we could reproduce a famous painting. Aw, the light bulb turned on! And, here is the result; Tilting At Windmills.

I have appreciated the painting Don Quixote, by Pablo Picasso for a very longtime. One reason I've enjoyed this work so much is I have an art student copy on cloth, that I've spent many accumulated hours gazing at. About thirty years ago I was walking to work and found my copy lying in an alley, outside a dumpster. I just had to rescue it. I took the painting home, fixed and painted the broken frame, and cleaned a few smudges from the painting itself. Voilà, I had a cool piece of art for no cost.

Another thing I like about this painting by Pablo Picasso is the stark simplicity. Yet, the more you look at it the more you see. I had an art instructor in my middle school days that said, for Picasso to be the great artist he is, and to be able to paint the way he does, he had to know the rules of painting to be able to break the rules. For me when I look at the painting Don Quixote, I almost always see the sun first and then my eyes are caught on the tip of the spear, downward to the Don and his horse, to the windmills, and finally to his sidekick, Sancho Panza, then back to the sun. I like the way Picasso draws the viewer through the elements of his painting.

I have a couple other projects I did this quarter that I'll be sharing here,
so stay tuned to this same Bat Channel at this same Bat Time!

by C. Cory Spencer