When I finished teaching my class today I felt my brain decompress as it normally does after a long session. I enjoy teaching, although I prefer it when I feel like people are actually learning something, and today was a good day for learning. I am writing this blog to check in with everyone as it will be awhile before the next one comes I fear. I have been relearning algebra to write my MBA entrance exam which for those of you who are smart enough not to bother with business school is called the GMAT. The GMAT test is essentially some sadistic academics way of testing you with 200 hundred riddles in 220 minutes, for the simple purpose of testing your head's ability to not implode in the ridiculousness of it all. And that previous sentence is a GMAT tests worst nightmare, and the reason why I am so bad at it. I have only just started liking school for the first time in my life, and this test is mostly testing my patience with this new love affair I have for seeking knowledge.
Now you may ask yourself why an artist would waste time going to business school, and wonder if it had anything to do with the commercialization of my art. The sad truth is that they are mutually exclusive endeavors, although one never knows when the tools you learn in life will become useful in a way you never imagined possible. I need the schooling because I have been lucky enough to have success which I feel means the need to improve myself, and as it did start with a need rather than a want I have been surprised to find myself liking about 80% of it, and I want to continue on for more substantial reasons that just because I have to. It has turned into a pleasure more than a pain. Well... until the GMAT thing. At this point I am going to try my best to pass this test just because I'm so pissed off that someone out there actually thinks its useful. I call bullshit. I can manage circles around any egg-headed, spreadsheet based wiz kid with one hand tied behind my back, but that egg head can remember algebra and likes riddles so who wins that battle?
It will be 2016 before I get my MBA, and that is if the stars align and I find myself able to pass the test, get accepted, and then find the money, and then find the time to do the work. Seems impossible, but so did the marathon I ran four years ago. The first time I ran 6 miles it felt like a marathon so the idea that when my training was complete I was going to find a way to run 24.2 miles seemed like a pipe dream. It hurt like hell, but I did that so I guess I am looking at this as the same type of challenge.
If you are wondering about my art life, well that is dripping like an old tap, but there is movement. In fact I can promise you that when my next 20 paintings are done they will be made with gallery quality material (not to assume they will be gallery quality paintings), I have enough material (minus paint) to keep me busy for a couple of years. I promise to try to check in once a month for the next little while and give you an update on where I am at. In the meantime if there are any Wiz kids out there that can tutor an old halfwit on the intricacies of algebra, geometry, and combinatorics (yes that is a real word even though this spell check doesn't know what it means) please call me. The fact I had to look the last word up is just a sad reminder of how much work I have to do in the next two months. In case my head does explode you can donate what's left of me to science. Perhaps they will finally solve the riddle of why everything I decide to do is so damn hard, and then explain why I can't choose to do something easier like run a mile rather than a marathon. Perhaps I can take up brain surgery next or maybe I can eat a whole cow in one sitting. Maybe I could become an overweight FBI agent or build a swimming pool in my backyard with a spoon. Maybe my faithful audience can give me a few hints of what I should do - it could end up being a show like "Dirty Jobs", but in my case I can show up and climb the Calgary tower with my tongue or memorize and recite Moby Dick in a volcano. Now that's entertainment...
