Blues and oranges

I've been here nearly six weeks now! Time, as expected, is absolutely flying past me.

East Gainesville forest/jungle

I do all my food shopping here at Publix, a big supermarket. There are two nearby, but my favourite is about ten minutes up a bike path. It takes me past a jungly bit which Luan says scares him at night because of the Skunk Ape. The Skunk Ape is our local Bigfoot/Nessie character - also known as the Swamp Cabbage Man, which I think we can all agree is adorable - I'll keep you posted on any sightings. Being here is expensive for me because of the weak pound. But there's a real lack of economy products that aren't absolutely nasty. Cheap cheese here isn't cheese - ditto most everything else really. I've found a great cheese here called Snappy Croc - and it comes all the way from Australia. It's worth every penny of its ghastly $7 price-tag, but it's a bit scary. Though look what I spied this week! Hey ho chaps, it's the British Isle!

Surprisingly inexpensive, which makes me suspicious that they're all budget locally-made "British" - I invite you, my friends back home, to critique this selection. Weirdly (but excellently) it includes Mrs Ball's Chutney - I might actually buy some of that. But no Bovril :( - and does anyone know what Jim Jams Milk Cocoa Spread is? It sounds gross.

Being here is increasing my car hatred, and I've found myself fantasising about keying the big monster trucks I cycle by. This place is giving me criminal thoughts! Perhaps as this state is so lawless I'd get away with it. Although I suspect protecting their cars is something Americans are fanatical about. But I had a mini-trip with Rose, Elli and Rhys from class. We went to Michael's, which is a craft superstore. I do wish we had those back home! They are already going big on Halloween-selling here - and here I am with the local scarecrow.

New sweetheart/Greencard marriage candidate

A couple of weeks ago I left the UF library at about 6pm and came straight into the pre-Gators game crowd. The team plays home games about once every two Saturdays, and the area around the stadium becomes a sea of orange and blue. Gainesville is fairly themed with these colours anyway, this was something else. People "tailgate" for hours before the game - which due the nature of the pedestrianised campus here is less actual bumper-to-bumper and more people sitting outside their cars with mini marquees, picnics, and large coolers of beer. 

Bonafide frat party!! Photo taken from distance to avoid invitation to join the kegger (as if)

It was interesting to me to see that the audience comprises a lot of adults coming to watch this college game. But John, our history of comics teacher (also an Uber driver who offers us SAW students our first ride free!) is a big Gators fan and says the stadium (the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, apparently known popularly as "The Swamp", natch) holds 90,000 people and the Gators bring in an enormous amount of revenue to the sports programme - so it's all a big deal. I'd be miiiildly interested in going to watch a game, but the stadium apparently has no shade and the idea of sitting in this heat watching college football... not so much.

Ben Hill Griff looming over us all, all the time

Hey guys - I'll meet you at Gators Gate 7?

Local student halls wearing the Gators colours

Thanks for reading, my friends! Until soon!

SAW Part Two

I wanted to post a little more about our school. I mentioned our regular schedule for the weeks - we have now added another class; on Thursdays we have two hours of illustration with Leela Corman, who is an illustrator and comic-maker, as well as being married to Tom. I took her first class as a trial - given I've been illustrating for such a while I wasn't sure how much it could add much for me - but I loved it, so I'll be doing that for the next 9 weeks.

First view on coming in the door - click to enlarge a bit.

The library of comics here is fantastic - I'll share pics soon, there's a ton to read!

Tables round the side for working at.

Computer and scanning area.

Place for collating zines and comics!

We sit at this table each day and ABSORB KNOWLEDGE

I'm going to start recording more about the class content itself, but wanted to get some more photos up of the space.

I also went to two volunteer orientations at the Natural History Museum last week - all being well, I'll be a volunteer docent in a few weeks more. (For those who don't know, as I didn't - a docent is a museum guide, usually voluntary - docent comes from the Latin meaning to teach, or lecture.) I signed up to help with school visits, and with the Discovery Carts. For the latter, I've got my eye on the croc cart - it comes with an alligator and croc skull, some croc skin, babies in jars and various crocodilian good stuff. During the second orientation we had a talk from a local (and apparently internationally renowned) croc man, whose name I've forgotten so that bodes well for my knowledge-retention! My fellow docents put me at the other end of the age-scale from where I sit in class. There were about 40 retirees, and me. I spoke with a woman who has just received her badge for volunteering at the museum for 50 years! Anyway I'll obviously post more on here if all goes swimmingly and I'm soon your local croc guide.

Me and baby ally. I'm doing "ah shaaaame!" face, which after seeing this photo, I won't be doing any more ;-)

IN SUMMARY:
'Gator sightings: lots, all in jars.

SAW! Part One

This is a post about the school I came here to go to - SAW, the Sequential Artists' Workshop. But first, here is a picture of me outside school with my wonderful bike! 

Going native - please note lanyard with keys, and GATORS T-SHIRT!!! Important to represent, while I'm here.

For the last few years, I've had a growing feeling of wanting to make a change and have some kind of adventure - I knew I'd like to live somewhere different, and put myself into a new environment, but wasn't sure how or where. I considered applying for the Maison des auteurs in Angoulême in France (still something I'm interested in down the line) and also I'd love to one day spend a month in Santa Fe at the Anthony Ryder Studio. But then my friend Tom told me about SAW, and things came together for me from there.

Junk everywhere! SAW shares its space with a large junkyard, and a business which seems to make electrical things of some kind - it's mysterious, but you pass through their offices to go to the loo - I'll find out one of these days what it is they do.

SAW was founded by the cartoonist Tom Hart in 2011. Tom is a prolific cartoonist and was an instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York for 10 years. I took a couple of his online courses, read his book "Rosalie Lightning" and signed up for his e-book and emails, and I really liked everything he was putting out. The ethos of the school was appealing too - community-based, small, with an emphasis on storytelling and drawing. I've wanted to study drawing in the US before now, but the costs have always been prohibitive - SAW keeps tuition fees low and affordable, and you pay on a sliding scale of what you can afford. So it seemed a good fit for an adventure - it was a leap of faith from there. 

I'd never been to Florida but was interested in coming to the US again, and seeing if the connection I felt from my years spent in California would still exist - though of course they are very different states. Florida appealed because of the promise of an outdoors, weirder life, one I hoped would be filled with different animals and plants - which it certainly is! There are lizards EVERYWHERE here - massive tick for me. (Speaking of which, no ticks yet, thank god! Although when I picked up the washing-up sponge last night a GIANT cockroach crawled over the other side of it - too grim. I just can't make friends with those repulsive f*&kers.)

There's definitely a comic story in here!

We have a regular weekly schedule here - Monday is Storytelling with Tom, Tuesdays are Comics History (last week was Hogarth so I felt relatively orientated - a feeling that will inevitably disappear as we get into 20th century comics!), Wednesdays are Traditional Drawing and Fridays are Figure Drawing. Most classes are three hours a day (plus homework), which gives a nice structure, while still leaving time for everything else.

There are eleven of us students; I'm the winner of come-from-furthest-away, and the oldest - most of my classmates are under 30. The other day I learned about XD (don't ask me, I didn't really understand) and scene haircuts. I'd like to say I play up my Englishness and confusion about these things on purpose, but I really am at sea. We did karaoke last week and I sang I Drove All Night - my classmates said afterwards they'd not known the song OR Roy Orbison - a brave new world, my friends! They are a friendly and talented group - I'm looking forward to seeing us all develop our work over this year.

The entrance to SAW - hiding behind this container... do you dare??

First view on coming in through the front door.

I'll post more about the school soon! xxx