One of the undeniable attractions of being a teacher is the amount vacation time you get. Not to sound like I dont love every minute in the classroom, but I need every minute out of it. We just had "winter brake", a random little week off in the middle of the dreary month of February. I thought I would take a true hiatus and head home to Vermont where I new my family would take care of me and require little of me. I slept, I exercised, I snowshoed and most importantly I made images.

The above images are quite. I made images without the confining label "a body of work"and am happy with the outcome. They still go together somehow. Simple, haiku like. I am committing to black and white for a while. I need to step out of my color comfort world and step into something slightly more experimental.

I am especially proud of the image of the hair. It is amazing how when making pictures of meaningful things they always just look better.

I think this is the beginning of something new. Since being married and becoming a teacher I have been going through some kind of identity crisis, or shift, or loss. I feel there are parts of me, from the past, that I don't know anymore and that are slipping away. My general mood has been incredibly quite and strongly turned inward. Without over thinking anything, this is the first image I made with these feelings at the forefront of my creative process. I liked the feeling of letting go of the precision of the 4x5, letting my bellows fall and bend.

Here are a couple more images from the high school. High School has changed since I was a student. There are no more dusty chalk boards, the ventilation system is suited for a space ship and the students have a salad bar in the cafeteria. The general atmosphere of the place though is exactly the same. Walking in the doors is like walking into a vacuum, the hallways smell like nothing, floor wax maybe. The students are the same too. All the same groups strut the halls, the jocks, the skanks, the "punks", the brains, and my personal favorite the nerds. The nerds are the most open and friendly group of students, they even invited me to play magic cards after school which had my stay at the high school been longer I would have absolutely done.

The other reason I have been busy is because I am back in school. I am currently getting certified to teach art k-12. The Maine College of Art has a one year program that has you in the classroom almost every day. I was really inspired by the high school environment. Every classroom is like a little pod set up for one activity. The environments are clean, almost sterile, and yet somehow loaded with the activity of students. Here are two images I made while in my high school placement. The hardest part was the lighting, it is so flat due to the fluorescents.

It has been exactly a year since my last post. This last year has been so increadably and wonderfuly busy. As far as photo goes, I spent a lot of time editing work for a formal web site which you can view at www.alissalane.com.

In other news: On July 17th Ryan and I tied the knot. It was absolutely amazing. After 5 years we decided it was time to gather the family and make it official. My mother spent a year sewing that dress, it is exquisite. We were married at an old barn in VT right in our home town. The day was spent surrounded by friends, family, good food and drink, bonfire and fiddle music. Everything was simple and sweet. Most things were hand made, my step dad made our cake, my dad made the h'ourderves, my sister made my jewelry, Ryan made all the signage, and I made tablecloths and favors as well designed the whole thing. It was about 98 degrees on the big day, but the rain in the forecast was no were in site.