I had an absolutely splendid day yesterday. I worked on the Jewish Medallion laser engraved backs in the morning and then had lunch with Nathan from Harley-Davidson. We had a great visit and talked about the creative team that he's a part of. It sounds like he works with an incredible group of people who work between design and engineering. We discussed motorcycles, VW busses, and Design and then I showed him around the DCRL and we talked about some different processes. After he left I worked on medallions I and connected the backing pieces I had cut in the morning with the top 3D printed pieces.
Then Clarissa (one of my former students) came to visit. It is always such a privilege to spend time talking with Clarissa. She is truly one of the most thoughtful people I have ever met. We talked about what was happening in her life and mine and as always she had great input on an upcoming project that I will be doing with some of my students. I love talking with her as she just "gets it". She had already sent me a beautifully written card for my Birthday (which I will blog about soon), but today she brought me a CD from the group Braid. I was meant to have this as the band started playing together in Champaign and now one of it's members lives in Whitefish Bay where I live now. While she was contemplating buying the CD, the bassist of the band walked into the store, so she said that I was truly meant to have the gift. Clarissa is so sweet and I am so proud of the person that she is!
After Clarissa had been at the studio for a while; in walks Jon Broadfoot. Jon was in one of my Intro courses, my first advanced Digital course (where we make 3D printers) and then worked as a part of our summer research team in the DCRL. Jon transferred to Savannah College of Art and Design for Industrial Design and he is going into his last year now. This past year he was hired as a technician in SCAD's rapid prototyping lab so he's doing well for himself. Jon shared all of the cool things that he's been learning and we talked about his courses and the things he designed and built this last year. I am so proud of Jon for his initiative to seek out new knowledge. He and I had a lot of things to discuss as he told me about his work with hydrographic dipping and some of the new materials he has learned about like D3O and I discussed casting processes with him. Jon starts a summer internship at Midwest Prototyping outside of Madison. He checked out the new additions to the DCRL. It was funny that Jon mentioned that he had just these three books that he looks at all the time (the ones pictured above). He had them in his car yesterday and I just happened to have purchased these this past semester and had them sitting in my studio. We had a good laugh that we were both obsessing about these books lately.
I went home and we cooked out on the grill with the kids. I got to thinking about how many amazing people I have had the opportunity to work with like Clarissa and Jon. Wisconsin state and the the University system is currently in upheaval, and it's easy to get sucked into the negative side of things. Clarissa and Jon remind me that I have made some lifelong friends as a result of teaching and I constantly have the opportunity to meet new interesting and interesting folks. I also get to witness talented individuals find their way through life as they apply their passions to their work; I am so blessed.
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