2006-11-28 - 8:19 p.m.
My office that was supposed to be painted over the Thanksgiving break, wasn't. There wasn't time, there were too many other offices or classrooms that had to be repainted because their owners hated the color they had selected once they saw it in real life. I really hope that doesn't happen to me, because if they hadn't let people have colors this year, the off-white would have been a one-shot deal, there wouldn't have been any of this having to do it over. So I don't want to violate the privilege of being able to have a color.
However, I AM being painted tonight (well, by now I am sure it is done), so tomorrow will tell the tale. They got a good head start on the job, starting an hour before it was time for me to leave, so I just left work an hour early. There wasn't really any work I could do without an office or computer.
This leaving early took me past the class of kindergarteners I had read to a couple of weeks ago; they hadn't gone home, yet, but were getting ready to. Finally they are creeping out of the shadows of their shyness and feeling secure enough to speak to me. One little boy lit up when he saw me, and then gently came over to say "hi". I always feel that I should say something more than "hi" back (as the intensity of their greetings always seems to demand some kind of appreciative response), but I don't really know what to say and whenever I do say something, they don't respond (which makes me feel lame), which teachers say is typical. I guess kindergarteners haven't yet developed the social skill of small talk! However, they have developed hugging, which is probably better, anyway. One little girl didn't say a word, but came over and gave me a big hug. I understand from the teacher that I make a special impression, although I don't quite know why or how (they must have at least a dozen mystery readers in a given year), but I like it! In fact, I'd hate to hear of them liking some other mystery reader better!
I've mentioned before that I give two lectures on Australia to one of the first grade classes, and have done so, now, for about eight years. One of the lectures is on aboriginal art. Well, a couple of years ago, we hired a new second grade teacher, whose brother, it turns out, works for some kind of Australia Board of Trade as a representative selling aboriginal art in the United States. So, of course, when this teacher heard about my lectures, she suggested that the first grade teacher might want to have her (expert, and, presumably far more knowledgeable) brother come to the class to speak on that subject. When I heard about that, I felt kind of potentially steam-rolled over. But no, the first grade teacher told the second grade teacher that we already have somebody speaking on that subject and there is no way that anybody else could or would possibly replace the speaker that they have. So, hooray for my friend, that first grade teacher!
Actually, the second grade teacher's brother was kind of cool; his sister mentioned me to him and he invited me to a gallery reception...of course, he hoped I would buy some art, but it was all priced in the thousands of dollars and besides, I knew that it wasn't "genuine" aboriginal art, but was, instead, painted on order by aborigines ("sell-outs", according to some aborigines) specifically for the western market. They paint these paintings on regular canvases, not sheaths of tree bark, using bright-colored acrylic paints, not hand-made earth-based paints, and tell a "cliche" story in the painting ("Kangaroo Dreaming", blah blah blah), instead of something unique and sacred (from the heart and satisfying to the artist's spirit). Technically, these paintings are beautiful and I suppose if I had thousands of dollars to burn, I'd want one of those "artificial" canvases just for their own particular beauty, but make no mistake, the genuine article would be much, much, much more worthwhile than the "counterfeit" and genuinely worth the money. I don't think I could ever get a "genuine" aboriginal work of art without going to an aborigine preserve and dealing directly with an artist in person who was willing to sell something he had already painted, for himself, not for some marketing rep. But find something genuine in a ritzy art gallery reception in West Hollywood? Unh unh.
The brother was nice, but definitely not with the personality of a public speaker, so I doubt if he would have wanted to give a talk to the kids. However, at the beginning of this school year, I said to the second grade teacher that I would enjoy going to another gallery opening if her brother would invite me again; if they had something really small priced around $100, I would probably buy it. She was excited about that, so we'll see what develops, if anything. It would be good to have something for my newly-painted office!
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