Sabrina Ward HarrisonThis is Room in the Trees, a podcast about living a creative life. Room in the Trees is hosted by Trent Reynolds and me, Sabrina Ward-Harrison.
Trenton ReynoldsShow notes including pictures, links, video, and more for every episode can be found at roominthetrees.com.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYou can follow us on Instagram at Sabrina Ward Harrison and at Trent Reynolds Art. And now, here's this week's episode. It's been a week.
Trenton ReynoldsOh, it's been longer than that. It feels like a lifetime has gone by this week. Just so much is going on. How are you doing right in this moment? Right now I'm feeling pretty good. We started teaching online, so my kid's school was postponed indefinitely, we've to their home and trying to do packets and packets of homework. And then the school I teach at is also closed. And we are now, this is the, this is, we just finished day two of teaching online. And it's been a pretty major learning curve for both students and teachers because we weren't really set up to do this before. So. But I'm feeling like I've got a handle on everything that I'm responsible for in my classes, and my kids all seem to be able to connect to the classes online and get the homework and assignments done, so I'm feeling good.
Cool.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIs it, are you having, are you kind of just at your monitor, just talking directly in, or are you kind of trying to do demonstrations or screen sharing, or how are you doing that?
Trenton ReynoldsJust for the sake of, there are so many moving pieces, so just the sake of keeping it simple for me, the way that I'm doing it right now is I pre-record a lesson. and I can edit in demonstration, or if I'm doing something in Photoshop, I can record my screen. And today I was taking pictures outside and just doing a screen capture on my phone that I'll edit it into the video. But then I post that, I try to keep it short, like five to seven minute video. And I send out a link to that. And then I have broken up each class into three separate groups. And then we meet on a video chat through Zoom. and I meet with each group separately for about 10 minutes, and that's where we, like, do some critique of the last project they work on and clarify anything that they didn't understand in the YouTube video and, you know, just connect there, and then the rest of the time they're supposed to be working on their projects and getting them uploaded, so.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWow, that sounds pretty streamlined. That's awesome.
Trenton ReynoldsSo far it's working out really well. I mean, the idea of being in a group chat with 15 high school kids all at the same time, trying to do a live demonstration using who knows what a camera and... trying to keep track of chats and if somebody's being distracted and muting their video or audio, it just was way too much to try to have things set up as they would be in a classroom. It just doesn't work that way. on like so I feel like found a good good balance of all you know different types of visual information so they're not just doing one thing the whole time and you know making good use of
Sabrina Ward Harrisontechnology yeah oh wow and then your family had a do you want to share anything about that what happened
Trenton ReynoldsI guess so. Yeah, I do.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI don't really know the story of it, so I'm curious.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, we got in a horrible car accident. My brother... called us up last week and said that they had canceled a tennis tournament that he and his wife were supposed to be in, and that was in Palm Springs. And he said that his timeshare at the hotel wouldn't let them refund what they had paid for it, so they asked us if we wanted to go use their timeshare.
Yeah.
Trenton Reynoldsthis doesn't necessarily that's awesome yeah so uh so we uh it turns out the kids school was canceled the next day my school was canceled next day so we just uh decided to leave and it was late on thursday it had started raining so you know la is a mess and what should have been a two-hour drive turned into like a four-hour drive So we were driving to Palm Springs and we were about 40 minutes away from Palm Springs and I was driving on the freeway on the 10, you know, 70 miles an hour. And a drunk driver came, swerved in front of a semi. and we were on the opposite side of the semi, so we couldn't see him coming. And, you know, like out of the blue, both the semi and our headlights are lighting up this car that's all of a sudden right in front of me, and I'm going 70 miles an hour. Oh, my God. So it's just like it was so confusing and disorienting just to be like I'm three and a half hours into this drive. Yeah. And all of a sudden... you know, this thing is right in front of me. So the car hit our car and the way that he hit us forced us in front of the semi and the semi scraped along the other side of our car and turned us into a spin. Oh my God. Yes, it was horrifying. It really was. And stuff like that happens so fast, and you're already in this kind of like I've been driving forever haze. So it spun us around, and we were just completely blessed. And this is where I run into dice territory because I start to get emotional.
Yeah. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsJust, we're very fortunate to land on the far right shoulder. We're facing toward into traffic. And everybody was, you know, thank goodness, not hurt. And we were out of traffic, you know, very easily could have, you know, landed, you know, spun around in into traffic and gotten a pile up or, you know, we could have spun because when the semi hit us, and there's so many things that could have happened that would have killed all or some of us, you know, and we ended up, you know, nobody was hurt. Laura and I are a little sore, but, but, and the kids were, you know, pretty traumatized by the whole thing. But Very fortunate that we landed on the shoulder of the freeway. Everybody was safe. There was smoke in the car from all the burning rubber that was from the tires. I jumped out of the car because people had pulled over, and I was worried that somebody else might have been injured or So I got out and luckily two people had seen the whole thing and one of the witnesses had been driving behind the drunk driver for like a mile and saw them swerving. Oh my gosh. So there were witnesses. The unfortunate thing, well, there were many unfortunate things about the thing, but the drunk driver spun off into the opposite side of the freeway. the shoulder on the opposite side of the freeway, and he drove off down the left shoulder. And so, you know, through all the chaos, like I ran back to our car. When I saw that he was driving away, I ran back to our car and asked Laura to give me my phone camera so I could get a picture of his license plate. And so... but our phones had been knocked down around the gas pedal. And so she couldn't find it, and the guy got away, and nobody got a picture of him. So it was a hit and run, and that makes the insurance situation a little trickier. Oh, man. That being said, the police were there in 10 minutes and we were like less than a mile away from the police office. So we were safe and the kids and Laura sat in the policeman's car. I mean, this is we're already like way past their bedtime. It's like 930. and we had to get Ubers. So we went to the police station to assess the damage and whether or not we could drive the car. The tow truck came to get our car. The policeman was awesome with our kids, gave them coloring and candy and stuff like that. Then we had to take an Uber for the last 40 minutes of the drive to get to this timeshare hotel. Oh, my God. Oh, my goodness. It was a mess. But we're alive and feel so blessed. It's one of those, you know, just moments that completely, you know, time stops for a second and you realize just how incredibly fragile life is, you know? Yeah. Yeah.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWow. Oh my gosh. That's just terrifying. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsIt was. It was terrifying.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd how did you get home?
Trenton ReynoldsWell, so the next day, while I was dealing with the cops and all the damage and stuff like that, Laura had the insurance on the phone right after it happened. And then, you the next day we picked up a rental car that's covered by the insurance. And, uh, so we had a car, uh, when we were in Palm Springs and, uh, drove that back and we'll have it until, uh,
Sabrina Ward Harrisonwhatever happens with our van is resolved. I'm really glad you're okay. I was like playing it out in my head. Like who would have called, who would have messaged? How would I have ever known you'd been killed? And like the, Just everything. Oh, my gosh. Podcast and television. Just the whole terrible.
Trenton ReynoldsIt is. It is.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonJust that all of you are completely safe and not hurt is incredible.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, you just imagine just the ripple effect of, you know, of events like that. And how many ways, you know, just one little thing could have been different and changed the rest of... my life, you know, and everybody's life because, you know, we're all connected. It's crazy. It's crazy. And then grading was due on Sunday and we started teaching online on Monday and it was just like, we're, you know, and just, and this Corona stuff is going on and trying to get groceries is a mess. And it's just so much just hitting all at the same time. Yeah. So anyway, that is all the update I've got. And, you know, the accident, of course, kind of overshadows everything that's happening right now. But, you know, just so grateful to be alive.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWhat's the situation? I know I keep asking you all the questions here, but I'm just curious. What's the situation as far as, like, groceries and grocery shopping in L.A.?
Trenton ReynoldsWell, yeah. The mayor announced that all restaurants are closed and major events and venues that... The mayor, yeah. Yeah. So grocery shopping, we went to Costco in... Palm Springs thinking that there would be less population there too. But it was just as, it was just as crazy, you know, all like water, diapers, diaper wipes, you know, things that we are interested in. Everything's gone. Rice, uh, yeah you name it like if it's a staple you know it's gone and then just here you know the local stores it's it's kind of crazy because like I went to smart and final last night And every single shopping cart was taken. But the lines weren't long at the registers. It was like everybody was just a zombie going up and down the aisles trying to find whatever product that they need to stock up on. And nothing – if you want pickles, I guess, they're probably there. But all the main stuff is down to the drags. Anyway, it's surprisingly quiet. I mean, I guess it's not surprising because everybody's kind of holding up in their house. But they've suspended street law enforcement for street cleaning. So not as many tickets because everybody's home. So there's just lots of little things changing up the normal routine. But shopping, you can get it done. I don't think it's – we're not as worried about that, I guess, as other people seem to be. But it still is like – a haunting scene to go and see shelves empty and stuff. How is it for you guys?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt is, I haven't gone and done a big, big shop yet. I attempted and I ended up buying just six, 12 packs of sparkling water and a whole bunch of almond milk. I didn't, it wasn't strategic about, I got, I got about 40 bananas and then five gallons of almond milk and then six cans of sparkling water, six cases of sparkling water. And that was, that was my hit.
Trenton ReynoldsAny pork loin or was that not part of the emergency strategy?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI know. I know. So I have a woman that does my meal prep for me that has done for the past year. So I get my meals from her every week. And so, but she said when I went to pick up my meals yesterday was, she said, she was having a hard time getting the food to make the meal so she said you better go start loading up on stuff if you can get it so I have to figure out where to go do that and see about it but that doesn't there's not a phonetic energy around here in Madison but it is strange to have like not be able to go to the gym and just the regular routine of my life is trying to stay really positive but just this is just a little shook and then I had a thing with where I'd gotten a physical last week last Monday and then got my regular mammogram and they're like yeah we gotta you need to come back in and
Oh my gosh.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo that was really scary. And so I got that message on Thursday and I said, well, can I come in on Friday? They're like, yeah, you're going to have to come in on Monday. And so all weekend.
Trenton ReynoldsOh gosh.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI was kind of worried about that. And I was pretty good about like letting it go and just like trusting, you know, it's going to be okay. And then, but just was weighing on me. So we went in yesterday and they did a further exam and thank goodness it was clear, but it was just on top of everything, just that weighted feeling of like, "Oh, all right."
Trenton ReynoldsIt makes me realize, I guess, or appreciate how all these low grade things, just this sense that things aren't safe or things aren't normal. It just makes me appreciate how blessed we are to be in a country where there's enough stability, right? That we don't have to have that constant low-grade fear of being safe and taken care of. There are so many people across the world... that don't live in places where they can make certain assumptions about the prevalence or availability of food and medical care. I don't know, it's just, or, you know, law-abiding police force or government, you know, like there are so many things that we can take for granted, right? that make our lives not have to have all that low-grade, like, fear and uncertainty. I don't know. It's a good time to recognize that we got it pretty good.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOh, absolutely. And I was thinking that, like, if they canceled my appointment and said, you know, sorry, we can't do it. And I was thinking, wow, just the thought of, like, if you need, you want to get a follow-up, and you can't, you know, if they said, no, we're not. taking any patients right now. You know, just like levels of like... And I was prepared to say, okay, but if I needed treatment, I needed treatment, but maybe I wouldn't have been able to get it.
Right. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsThere's so many different... angles and levels.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd then Sean's just utterly annoyed by the entire thing. He's like, it's just the flu! Oh my god! And it's just completely, super irritated. And then so, it's just like, it's extreme. So...
Trenton ReynoldsYeah. It seems like both of those sentiments are coming at us from the media, though. Or just the general sense is there's one extreme of everybody's taking this way out of control, and it's not that big a deal. And then on the other side is like, this is very serious, and you've got to... shut everything down. So yeah, it's kind of strange, the conflict.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd the concept of how long, I think it's just strange to think how long this is. I think it's like, okay, this is a little crazy for a couple days, and you're like, this it's a strange thing to wrap your mind around this is a new normal so right right so even thinking about liberate opening in two weeks it's just been something to kind of think about how even just the sense of community and the gathering together i think i already feel that isolation of not having my the people i see on a regular basis and just having that that connection and the longing for that. So I think that Liberate is going to be coming at a good time for as far as being able to focus and be home and then also just have a great community of people that are being able to have a focus, a group focus and support system.
Okay.
Trenton ReynoldsI think that's going to be one of, well I'm hoping anyway, that that's one of the positive byproducts of all of this is that schools and just human beings in general are going to have to get a little bit more sophisticated in how they connect and communicate online, right? And I think that can be a fantastic thing. I already see with my kids, my parents have gotten more savvy with FaceTime and with Marco Polo. They still want to connect with the kids, so they're finding ways to make that happen. And I think even when life is back to normal, them having had to go through that is going to... you know, connect us more and give us more ways to...
Sabrina Ward HarrisonRight, right, right, right.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd that can happen at a more macro scale of like schools and universities and cultures. Like, I think this is hopefully going to be one of the times that we're forced into change that is inevitable and hopefully good.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI'm not being darling and not that I all the time, but I feel like I'm pretty, I can be, I just felt like I'm like kind of this, got this energy I don't like. That's just like, but I think it's coming from this underlining just, just like, so it's having to stay just right where not to be forward thinking and just be like right here today. And, and I think having a gratitude list and just being right with, and focusing on like, how can I love the people around me and, and just be, be there for them. And.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, I think that, man, that is the thing, right? Is don't, the worry is that we take all of this and, and turn inward and disconnect and focus on our fears and everything that's wrong with the world instead of using this as an opportunity to work harder to connect and be grateful and, you know, and reach out, turn outward. I can see it, both extremes available to us and definitely see, you know, that in the paranoia that's happening.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. Do you have any clever art suggestions for people that they could sort of think about, little project? What was the thing you were teaching about with your phone for your students?
Trenton ReynoldsIt was a project I did last year that turned out really well, and so I'm doing it again this year. But essentially, I have them take an object that is inherently boring. It's an object that does not seem to be worth taking a picture of, right? Like stuff, a piece of crumpled paper in their pocket or something that they would not choose as an interesting subject. And then to use the different concepts of contrast and composition and things that... rule of thirds, all the things that we've talked about in class so far to try to make a compelling image using this as their subject. But that is just this first stage. The next stage is I have them print out the picture that they take to two copies. And with one copy, they crumple it up. And they agitate it with sandpaper or run it under water or dump some kind of colored liquid on it. And then on the other one, I have them hold it up against a window so the back is facing them and trace shapes from the photograph. And they don't necessarily have to be recognizable shapes, but just kind of following lines that they see in the photograph. Yeah. and then color it in with pens or markers or pencils or whatever. And then they take pictures of these two. So this is a three-class project. Sounds complicated, but it's broken up into small pieces. Then they take pictures of these two, two messy photographs that they did, or one tracing and one agitated photograph. And then they layer all three, the original and the two versions that they made, they layer all three of those in Photoshop on top of each other And they do four different compositions using these three different layers in different ways, like with different blend modes and using different kinds of filters and image adjustments and stuff like that. So they come up with a grid of four square compositions that are all based on different combinations of these three layers of visual information.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonDoes that make sense? Oh, that sounds fantastic. I love it.
Trenton ReynoldsYes. Well, I like the combination, and this is kind of a theme, I guess, in my own work, a combination of digital and physical, right? Yeah. And I like the idea of translating what, you know, they see on their computer screen through all this kind of physical process and then re-digitizing that to use the tools of, you know, available technology.
in Photoshop.
Trenton ReynoldsNo, it turns out really well. I'll send you some of the results. Last year, it was awesome.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI would love to see it. I know a woman I work with who I'm mentoring, Jen, she would love, she does a lot of digital stuff, but it's really working and combining that with mixed media on wood panels with her photography and I think that would be really a cool exercise for her to play around with so anyway anybody too but that's really neat yeah so you've got you've got Liberate coming up yep Liberate opens on March 31st for registration and will be open for a week to register and then the course will begin and anyone who signed up last year will be have access to the second version of it where we have added more things and there's just more even more there. I'm excited. I think it's going to be really good to get into. And I'm crazy about the books that people are finishing up right now. And I just, it's, they're beautiful. And I just see how it's implemented. What's been learned has been implemented into their pages. And it just, it's
Trenton ReynoldsIt's tight. That's awesome. It's tight. Tight. It's just tight. So I've seen images of... Have I seen images of one of the books yet, or have I seen one of the books?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYou've seen Susie's images of her book. I don't... Maybe Tammy's finished hers. The latest one is Emily's, who's just being sent off, I think, tonight to get printed. And... It's happening. It's like the question of like, well, if I wait, you know, it's like you could wait a year but what if you didn't wait a year? And that the feeling of who out there, you not doing something you need to do is holding it back from someone who needs it. There's someone out there who needs what exactly what you have to say, exactly what you have to give to the world. And like I talked about, like Bono didn't question the going, well, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles already did it. So who am I to do anything? You know, it's like, so it's, you know, there's not, Bono's not trying to be Beethoven. You know, like we just have to do, do us. That's for the world to, to, to have not, it's not, it's not ours.
Right. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsThat's a great, important lesson to learn and relearn.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI love this part of, I think I'm so ready to be back in that teacher mode.
Trenton ReynoldsHas it been good to build up that appetite again, though? Like to have some space to lay low and then...
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. Because I do have a few clients that I do private coaching with on Fridays. So it's been a nice... lead in because I'm working so closely with them on certain phases of the book making of the process that I Can hone in even more like okay I want to bring add this and add this into it so it can kind of even be that much more razor focused on specific parts of the process and so seeing where there's a little like this question or oh we could We could do this other few other ways we could solve it and so Yeah, I feel prepped. I feel prepped. I feel rested. I feel I good and I've got oh the cool thing with when we looked at the venue for the wedding we have our venue picked out awesome wonderful barn with chandeliers is a great spot and when we were there the woman Stephanie she said oh this beautiful florist we started working with and she had kind of a book of her work and it was really artistic and so I reached out to this woman and said I just would love to to talk to you further about possibly doing that with the flowers. Because I think that's really such a statement part of an event. It's like really unique, beautiful, bold flower design. It just can be so magical. So it turns out she's had Spilling Open since 2000 when she graduated from art school here at UW-Madison. Oh my gosh, awesome. So she just pulled out, spilling open like six months ago to give to her 14-year-old daughter and so she was like, "This is so cool, manifestation of," so I'm really, she's like really a creative great, great energy. So I'm like very looking, you know, it's like gonna be a cool collaborative thing to work with her.
So that's wonderful. Wow, that's awesome.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo things just are unfolding like that. way.
Trenton ReynoldsChandelier in a barn.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYes, chandeliers.
Trenton ReynoldsI'm wrapping my brain around that. Chandelier, not so cozy. Chandelier in a barn.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYes, right. Chandelier in a barn.
Trenton ReynoldsStarting to cozy that right up. That becomes not only cozy, but there's that nice tension between formal and beautiful and Yes. Elegant. And there's a fireplace.
All right.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. It works. And there's an outdoor wood-burning oven for pizzas. Yes.
Trenton ReynoldsIs it for pizzas or is it just a- Yes. It's for pizzas. It is for pizzas. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Where do you find this?
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsThis sounds like paradise.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt's pretty great. It's pretty great.
Yeah, so that's happening.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSeptember 20th, 2020.
Trenton ReynoldsMark the date. Send happiness your way. Yes. Peace.
That's awesome.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAll right, my friend. This was a good catch-up. So grateful you guys are okay. And you should be getting the calendar from Sean. Sean is very adamant. He's like, did you send that to Trent yet? I'm like, it's been a week. So it's the first thing on Monday morning. I was... Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week. In the meantime, you can follow us on Instagram at Sabrina Ward Harrison and at Trent Reynolds Art.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd check out the show notes at roominthetrees.com where you can also get in touch if you have any ideas you'd like to share.
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Trenton ReynoldsPlease help us grow our audience by rating us or writing a review on iTunes. To do that, you can use the link roominthetrees.com forward slash iTunes. ♪ ♪