AAR Dogs

I'm currently nerding out over The Force Awakens, which I saw yesterday. I can't remember the last time I fell so in love with a movie. I would see it again (and again, and again) in a heartbeat. It's so easy fall into the hole of endless entertainment on the internet, but when you see something that makes you genuinely feel things, it's just an incredible experience.

It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of the holidays, but I have been doing a lot better with them. I am used to being extremely busy and surrounded by people. When I'm here, it's endless unstructured solitary time. It's such a huge contrast that it is often shocking to my system. I've been pretty sick since I got home, and instead of trying to force myself to do things that I consider worthwhile, I'm trying to just embrace what I have here--the unstructured time and solitude. Those things can be relaxing and recharging, but I'm just not good at not doing everything all the time. It's all about framing.

Today I took a lot of festive photos.



Toby is such a cute old dog.



Panic did not enjoy the snowman posing.



Happy Holidays to everyone, I hope they bring good things no matter what they look like for you. 

I've been wanted to write a post for awhile now, but I'm not really sure what to say.

Panic is doing well here overall--I'm happy to have him here all the time. We're taking an online class right now (with Tammy)! That is something I never thought I would do, but the format is actually really fun and it makes me realize how much I've missed training. We both have so much fun working on the exercises, and I love seeing other people's videos and their progress as trainers. I've never done much videotaping of my training sessions and that is quite eye opening. I'm not great at videoing though, the last two sessions I taped were a complete bust--Panic was completely out of frame for one of them and I accidentally deleted the other. Great job.

I'd love to take another online class after this. Any recommendations? I need some that don't involve any agility obstacles, maybe a tricks class.



As much as Panic loves running free in the woods, I know he gets just as much joy out of training as I do.



Oh yeah...I have a job interview tomorrow morning. For like a real thing for after I graduate. Yeah, that's terrifying.

Fall break has been a great time for me to experiment with making stuff. I built a loom earlier in the week to try my hand at weaving with plastic yarn I made from Walmart bags. This is...a slow and tedious process. But yeah, I kind of enjoy the tedium.



I came into my Senior IS with a very strong concept. I still have that concept, but as of right now I'm focusing on experimenting with a lot of different things that likely won't end up in my show. That is the beauty of an indepedent study, I have the freedom to approach it in any way I'd like. But I also continue to build up my army of undead pigeons (which I personally think are quite adorable).





Long live the pigeon. 

My Senior Independent Study Project will last the duration of my senior year and culminate in a gallery show in the spring. My concept is slowly taking shape, but I know it will change and develop as the year goes on. My current focus (which relies heavily on the Environmental Studies part of my education) is, broadly, Empathetic Engagement with Non-Human Animals, exploring our various relations to animals in regards to issues like human-caused extinction and farming. I might delve into animal companionship as well, but that comparison might prove a big too unweildy.

( The process so far. )

This topic will be a challenge, but I feel committed to experimenting with how art can illicit a sense of empathy in a viewer. Empathy is a very power and very personal emotion. Realistically, I don't actually expect to achieve the goal of instilling empathy in anyone. It's impossible to control how a viewer will recieve art, but I can try my hardest to convey my intent as much as possible. 7 months for now we'll see how I did.

I had so much fun this weekend. It was a tiny trial full of very nice and fun people. That is the big thing I've missed about USDAA in this area--the atmosphere is always AWESOME.

Panic ran wonderfully. I'm so pleased with him. The rubber-infill turf there is very nice, and I think the rosin/chalk powder helped him out quite a bit--the only run I didn't use it for was Steeplechase Round 2 and while he still ran well he did noticeably slip and knock a bar in that run, his only bar of the weekend.




It was so much fun to get out there with him again. He really is running great. Despite only running clean in one run, he looks and feels better than ever to me. If we did agility more than once every sixth months I'm sure the consistency would be there. I know that things can change in the blink of an eye, but at this rate I anticipate many more years to come for us. And we can still go down to 16 in the future!

Also wanted to share his Standard run in which he TOTALLY PULLED A BRIGHT and added an extra backside. Good times.



This weekend reminded me why I love agility so much. Good courses, nice people, and runs that left me feeling happy but motivated to train more. One day maybe I WILL be able to train more. Until then, I head back to school on Tuesday. My life is full of so many seperate sections right now, but I'm lucky to care so much about each one of them. Sometime I'll have a life that isn't so broken up.

One of the most memorable experiences of my summer was getting to work at a small music festival in Wisconsin at the end of July. It's run by a good friend of Liz and Gabe's, Sima Cunningham, a brilliant musician and an all around awesome person. She's one of the hardest working people I know and her projects and responsibilities are too many to list, but one them is her band Homme. They only have one song out so far, Fingerprints, but yeah it definitely deserves a listen--or two, or three.

Hoofprint does posters, t-shirts, and on-site installations for the festival, and I was more than thrilled to be a part of that process. Something I don't think I've discussed on here is my involvement in the small music scene at Wooster. I'm not a musician, nor do I know much about music, but I do love it and I love being involved in making live music happen--and making it an awesome and immersive experience. It was a dream come true to be a part of this festival and to see that it is indeed possible for a small group of hard working people to make something amazing happen.



Gabe and I screenprinting the poster. We printed about 200 copies of a four layer image, a process that took us four 8-hour days.



Our mobile screenprinting set-up at the farm. Here I'm printing images onto pennants, which were then strung up around the property. Hundreds of them! That's my fellow intern Mary in this photo, she was fantastic to work with and get to know all summer.

On Saturday morning Liz taught a linocut workshop and I got to teach a cyanotype workshop. It was so fun.



Here, some participants are placing plants onto a plexiglass sheet. After they placed their objects, we put paper on top on them and another sheet of plexi to make a sandwhich.



Exposing the paper to sunlight. It turns from yellow to bright blue, which you can see beginning to happen here.

In the past I've done a lot of art-related teaching with children, but never with adults. It was really fun to see people go from reserved and nervous about being creative to super excited about experimenting with the process. The workshop was only supposed to last an hour, but everyone was so into it that we just kept going and going. While I think I've found that teaching agility isn't quite my cup of tea, I do love teaching in general and this in particular was right up my alley.

Art, music, and the fusing of the two together, all while camping out at a beautiful farm. It was absolutely fantastic. Of course Panic got to come along as well. People I never even met knew Panic by the end of the weekend..."Oh hey Panic, what's up?" He became particularly famous (or infamous, perhaps) for his unique enthusiasm for the water hose.

In addition to Homme, I have to plug Marrow, who has the other half of Homme in it (Macie Stewart) as well as Sima's brother. Big things are coming from these guys soon. I can't emphasize enough what a lovely community I was immersed in this summer between the art and music communities. The hard work, passion, and support of all these people is something I will carry with me forever.

All photos by Liz Born. 

I just did two things that I had totally sworn off doing. I entered a USDAA show. On turf.

Yes I feel like a hiprocrite, but what can you do. I feel more comfortable entering USDAA now that 20" performance is an option for Panic. Every venue has it's issues of course, but USDAA was really pissing me off for awhile so it was good for me to take an extended break from it. I literally do not remember our last USDAA trial, but I'm pretty sure it was back in 2013.

Turf-wise, this facility has very nice, new, rubber infill turf, which is much different than the more common carpet turf that prompted me to swear off the stuff altogether. I have a new secret traction weapon as well--rosin. It's pretty commonly used as traction on basketball shoes and drag racing tires (damn) so I hope it serves Panic well. It also happens to be frequently used for printmaking, so I've been using the stuff all summer and have easy access to some.

Who knows, I might end that weekend frustrated at myself for trying to run on turf/do USDAA again. I hope not.

I genuinely feel as though not doing agility has had a noticable impact on my relationship with Panic. While we still do a lot of stuff together--training, hiking, walking, playing--I don't feel like there is any substitute for the intensity and teamwork involved in agility. I wanted to bite the bullet and enter at least one show this summer, and it'll be after I get home so we'll also have a week to go play at our dirt and grass facility. I think it'll be really good for both of us.

I've been taking Panic on long leash walks this week which I think has been helping him. Such an obvious thing to do, but historically I just don't take Panic for very many walks. He goes for runs with me, I take him hiking or to parks to run in fields, just not long neighborhood walks. But they seem to be good for him here--much better than going to crowded parks at least. Lots and lots of sniffing which is A++ stress relief.

Crazy to think my summer in Chicago is coming to a close so quickly. 

Panic isn't fully adjusting to being here. I think we are suffering from the same type of stress, the stress of not being able to get away. 4th of July wasn't the worst, but the aftermath was terrible---residual fireworks at any and every time of the day for weeks. There are still some that go off. That put him on edge anytime we went outside for the week after the 4th. Suddenly I had an extremely noise sensitive dog on my hands. He's getting a bit better, but still isn't a fan of the baseball that is always going on at the park next to our apartment. This is a city and we have never been city folk. There are people everywhere. There are dogs everywhere. There are noises everywhere. There is no place we can just sit outside and relax.





I am learning to love Chicago in so many ways. It is beautiful, and there is so much to do and see. I love being able to explore the city with people. The idea of moving here after I graduate has been rolling around in my head, and in a lot of ways it makes sense. Being here this summer is giving me a good idea of the things I value in a living space and a location. Ultimately, that will make it easier to find what I'm looking for.



I have the day off today, and we'll be using it to explore hiking spots outside the city. I have to accept that I won't find anything close by like I can in Louisville, but at this point an hour and a half drive seems like nothing if it means we can get away. 

One more update. Panic came up with a cool new trick when I asked him to "wave" while he was laying on his side. Creative guy.