It seems like forever since I have blogged! Here is my latest completed piece. During my Easter break, I worked on this piece, which was actually a gift I painted for a former colleague of mine. This school year was an especially hard one for me. Although I got both flu vaccinations, the influenza shot in early October, and the swine flu shot in December, I spent all of February and half of March sick with the flu. I got a little breather, but got sick again in April. So, the little time I felt up to making art was done in that week of spring break. During spring break, I was given the best news possible: I got the principal position for the Social Justice Leadership Academy! I have waited patiently for this school to open for the last few years. I applied for the job in May 2009, was told I got the job, then, everything was put on hold. To say I am excited is an understatement! I am going home, back to East Los Angeles, and my new school will consist of many, many familiar faces: Garfield friends and colleagues and maybe a few surprises! Let me come back to this piece... in June 2007, I was told I would be moved to a new school at the end of the year, "to give me another school experience before I would become a principal." I was given the news almost two weeks before the school year ended. The day I got that news was one of the most painful experiences of my life. That day, I was the acting principal and here I was being told I would be moved without any input from me or any thought as to how I would feel about this. For the next two weeks, I had a tremendous outpouring of love, respect, and good wishes bestowed on me. The faculty collected several hundred names on petitions and put pressure on our local district and Board of Education to not move me. The last attempt saw two dozen teachers go to the last Board meeting of the year. One of my oldest friends and colleagues, James Wicks, addressed the packed Board meeting and tried to persuade our former Superintendent not to move me from Garfield. In the end, I was moved not to the school I was originally told, Roosevelt High, but instead, to Wilson High. I was given the kind of send-off you would expect at a funeral. I got the best eulogy you could possibly get, and although the pain of being moved would last throughout my time @ Wilson, I got a golden opportunity by being moved to Wilson. However, that is for another day. I received many, many cards and emails throughout my first year away from Garfield; sometimes, it felt like I was receiving these on a daily basis during that first year. But the most touching one I received was a poem that my fellow colleague and B track teacher, Ann Braeff, gave me. It was an acrostic poem that used all of the letters of my first and last names and it addressed me and the topic of change. When I received this gift, I told Ann I would make a copy of the poem and somehow, I would use it for an art piece for her. It took me almost three years to get that piece completed! When I started to work on this in late March, most of the piece was done very quickly. By working on it, the piece reflected how all of a sudden, I felt: a new beginning, full of hope for what lies ahead with this new school, and coming full circle. I embedded in the background of this piece, Ann's poem. Although it is very subtle where Ann's words are in the painting, the focal image echoes those words very loudly. Lastly, there was no way I could have created this piece back in 2007 - I had to live these last three years exactly in the manner I have to get to this point in my life: a new beginning.