I haven’t posted for a while because I’ve been exceptionally busy for the last month. We spent a week around Christmas in Savannah, Georgia, where I have family. The weekend after we returned home, Cute W and I went the Out of the Blue Festival — more on that later. We arrived home late on Wednesday the 8th, and then, two days later, we went down to New York City with the girls to see “Oh, Mary!” and act like tourists. It was all extremely fun, but also exhausting, and before and after each trip, Cute W and I were working frantically to catch up on any work we’d missed. And now that I’m finally caught up, and I’ve watered all the plants and cleared my desk, I can catch up here.
First: CREATE Community Studios. I am a longtime admirer of CREATE, but the truth is, I’ve mostly admired it from afar. I finally managed to show up in November to an Open Studio day at their Schenectady location that was advertised as specifically for those of us who were experiencing post-election anxiety. I think I saw a social media post about it and a couple of friends said they planned to be there. Now is the time, I thought. As it turned out, neither of the friends showed up, but I ran into a couple of other friends their, and it was an extremely friendly group. Mostly, though, I just loved that the vibes were impeccable. And of course, there was lovely art everywhere, so I took pictures.
There are a bunch of lovely little tiles as well as a casual art gallery above tons and tons of art supplies that are available for whatever creative projects that you can possibly dream up. It was also just a very caring and supportive kind of place. For this specific Open House, kids weren’t invited, so that the grown ups could feel free to voice their fears. I happened to be sitting between two moms of trans kids, so there is plenty of fear. While the art I made wasn’t worth keeping and framing, at least I took home a little commiseration and plenty of gratitude that things are a little simpler in my own family.
Meanwhile, we were surrounded by art that was just the uplifting sort that we all needed on that particular visit.
CREATE offers tons of activities and classes, and there’s a nice mix of activities that are relaxed and free as well as lessons where someone’s going to tell you what to do. You can check out their Calendar here. I also like this activity list because it includes the most pertinent information at a glance, mostly, for me, location and price, because I am not going to schlep to Troy, sorry, and if I’m not sure about something, of course I’m more likely to try it out if it’s free or $5 instead of more. In fact, now that I’m finally getting around to writing this post, I’ve realized that I’ve been missing out on the opportunity to Stitch & Bitch, and maybe I need to try that.
Anyway, it feels like there’s never been a better time to do art together with other people, so I encourage you to try it. And if there’s something you want to do at the Schenectady location and you need a buddy, hit me up.
Now, I’m also going to take the opportunity for a random rant. Please take another look at that photo above, the one with the upcoming classes. Those clever folks at CREATE have also included a QR code. I would like to applaud them for their proper use of a QR code. People can look at what classes are available on the big visual display, and if it whets their appetite, they can pull out their phone and use the QR code to bring up details about the classes or sign up. Brava.
Are you saying, “But Katie, why are you congratulating them on doing something that is so very simple and obvious?” I’ll tell you why. In my job, I often write emails. I’ll put together an email for, say, a summer camp or a theater or an indoor play center, and I get started by asking for text and images so that we can tell readers more about the place, using the text and images. You would not believe how many people send me images with QR codes. Which is ridiculous when you realize that I can embed a link directly into any image in the email. Like some kind of a sorceress. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it. Click that image with the classes listed above. Go ahead. See? But it’s not just ridiculous to include a QR code into an image that already has a link. Most readers will read the email on their phone. So how are they supposed to pull out their phone to scan the QR code that’s on the image on their phone? They cannot. Or maybe they can, but it probably involves positioning themselves between mirrors. Which seems silly, when the image already has a link.
Sigh.
What is truly heartbreaking is that people who send me images with QR codes are probably feeling really proud of how they are hep to the jive, and they are just. so. not.
And I hesitate to even share this here, because I try to always only be kind, and I am kind of making fun of these people, and is it possible that one of these people will read this and feel bad? But I am doing it anyway because it feels extremely, extremely unlikely. And I’m also comfortingmyself that if anyone who actually has sent me an image with a QR code to put into an email, then I am doing them a service, like when you tell someone that they have spinach in their teeth or toilet paper in their shoe. So that they can correct it, and never speak of it again.
