My poor phone tried so hard to capture this spectacular moment. It really was incredible in real life.

November has been by far the most beautiful month for Ballyvaughan.

Art School Moments

A new experience for me:

When the artist you idolize, who's work you've spent the last week binge-pinning to your Pinterest page is drunkenly passed out in your living room at 7 in the morning.

I don't know how to feel about this.

Also,

Last night I had nightmares about 3 things:

• moldy bread
• ruined brushes
• too many assignments due before the end of the semester

My subconscious is an open book.

B-vaughan, mid-November

I don't have much to update after last week's trip to Derry. The week has been very quiet and busy. As the semester winds down, I'm realizing how much is left to squeeze into these last two weeks. I'm finishing up three books, painting 4 paintings, drawing 8 charcoal studies, writing essays and trying to fit in time to sleep. Today I didn't go into the studio because I felt like I needed a day alone at home to intensely focus on my most pressing essay and finishing a book on Colonialism. The day was so productive that by 2 o'clock, I'd finished what I needed to finish and had cleaned my room and bathroom. I looked outside and realized that it was sunnier, brighter, and more crisp than it's been in days, so I hurried to put on my shoes and took a lovely long walk until dinner.

Another little thing:

I've been keeping a small list of words that have entered our house-lexicon, now that we've settled into Ballyvaughan living. Things that are commonly heard around our house and town, that make perfect, un-translatable sense to us, that will never be heard or used once we leave. They aren't even inside jokes. Just phrases or word combinations that have been uttered often by several of us, that aren't likely to continue outside of the West of Ireland. I like to have them in a place where I can go back and remember.

Here are a few:

• "The cows have been sneezing a lot this month"
• "he spray painted his goat in Clare colours"
• "The peat won't light"
• Gaileon
• forn
• plowl
• "she's going to wrap herself in a bubble-wrap cocoon and crawl from SPAR to the community center"
• "I stepped in the turlough"
• "The turlough's gone"
• "The turlough's back"
• "There's a turlough in the road"
• "turlough"
• "I heard the banshee this morning"
• "I went to the fairy fort for lunch"
• "see the donkeys"
• (phonetically) "I've just gotten back from Killin'a'boy"
• "the cows woke me up"
• "I think we'll O'Lochlainn later"
• myeye!
• cuh-RYE
• Digestives
• Hunky Dories
• "Colcannon again"
• "it is"
• "he is"
• "she is"
• "they are"
• "i am"
• "i was"
• …
• "the milk's outside"
• feck
• tits up
• awr shih-tz
• fer foak's saké
• yer man
• I'm going to my Laba

In the North

This past weekend a group of us went to Derry for the 2013 City of Culture. The trip was short, but very memorable. The times I've gone to the North have always made a strong impression on me. I can't wait to get back up there again next semester. It's a place that definitely warrants a longer visit.
This past weekend's trip, though, was crammed with as much of Derry as was possible to squeeze into the amount of time we had there. Lots of group bonding and very little sleeping was done. If I were to summarize my first Derry experience in four words, they would have to be:

art

politics

guinness

powers

I'm living in a country filled with people who can drink and take this talent seriously. It makes for some amusing stories (better shared in person). 

Here are a few photos:

I was excited to revisit this Blaney grave while the rest of the group visited Yeats (I paid my respect to Yeats as well, don't worry).

Sligo

Ben Bulben

Interpretive dance on an ancient grave

We drove through Donegal, including the town where my last name supposedly originates. It was pretty unremarkable, but nice to see.

These pictures sum up our Donegal experience pretty well. I'll have to get back up and see it properly.

Our first experience in the City of Culture. Life drawing!

Some of the public's reactions to the exhibitions.

Love the honesty

Rita Duffy: Red Ham of Ulster

All of these were great

This one feels a little sensitive

Derry Peace Bridge. This photo was taken around 4:30 in the afternoon. Maybe even earlier.

We all went to Peadar O'Donnell's at my professor's recommendation to celebrate a birthday. It was a lively, musical, loud, exciting, and very late night.

We took a tour of the Bogside. Our tour guide was magnificent.

It was especially moving to retrace the path of the march on Bloody Sunday. Powerful and tragic.

and then there's the graffiti...

Bloody Sunday mural.

Free Derry

14 year-old girl shot dead by British soldiers after she picked a rubber bullet off the ground. 

The other side

Documenting the previous night's memories

Willie Doherty exhibition. 

Willie Doherty

Walking in the rain to a barbershop gallery. The sign kept our spirits up.

Backroads Derry

little reminders

AHHH!!!! (Miriam, I hope you see this)

Backroads of County Clare

There has been a lot of talk about "pathways", roads, and maps around school in the last few days. People's art projects reflect this, as do the photos uploaded to facebook, and the conversations about getting lost on back roads that are discussed over lunch in the cafeteria.
When I decided to take advantage of a rare hour of sunshine yesterday afternoon, it was hard not to be inspired by the roads and pathways I was following. I embraced the cliche metaphor and reflected on the different paths I have chosen in my own life, and how glad I am that they've led me here. (Although I have to remind myself of this when I'm walking home in the pitch darkness, past haunted houses surrounded by bleating sheep and a sky filled with hail-heavy clouds. Or even on those warm, cozy nights, sitting by the peat fire, reading for school, but unable to concentrate because my American body won't stop craving a Wegman's breakfast sandwich).

I'm not studying pathways, roads, or maps in any sense for my MFA, but I decided to take a break from the heaviness of my own research topic to allow inspiration to flow through a completely different source yesterday.

Here are some of the roads I pass daily. Roads that I have come to take for granted, that lead me to school and home.