The Project High
It was interesting staying late at school tonight. Usually I stay late while burning the midnight oils on a project I am working on with the kids, but tonight was a definitive treat. I stayed late helping with someone else’s project. Kay Flewelling is teaching a project that I had a heavy hand in advising towards in its early stages. I didn’t really help so much in the content, which was about food experimentation and cooking, I helped with prepping the management styles that would be used and what kind of materials would be worked with.
The task to make 100 books all by hand using recycled materials whilst working with written reflections on food experimentation is completely fascinating. I advised that they use hand made linoleum stamps and inks, a process I used while in high school many many years ago. What I did not help account for was the length of time it was going to take to create the stamps and this put a huge cramp in the production process. When Wednesday night came along, the night before the exhibition, I found myself wandering down the hall to see how it was going. I found them struggling to finish a book and it was then that I knew I wanted to stay and help. And I did.
I might not have even been much in the way of service - besides going to pick up the few dedicated kids some pizza and attempting to get some carving done myself. I might not have been much in the way of help - but I got something out of it that was far greater and it was what I like to call the “Project High”. Right before you are about to hit a deadline or a level of accomplishment there comes this frenzified energy that takes you over and allows you to do amazing things. I got to experience this last night.
