Happy Accidents

During my recent exploration of the Facebook universe I happened upon a sad discovery.  The old building in which I attended various fine arts classes at MTSU was torn down some 4 years ago.  Granted, that was probably 30 years later than it should have been destroyed, it is sad news none the less.

The building was one of the more character rich, inanimate objects I have ever known.  This was due to the fact that the building itself was a converted barn, lovingly referred to as the Art Barn.  The term converted should be taken very loosely.  Substitute dirt floors with real floors,  animals with students, and the conversion is just about complete.  Despite that, the place was full of nothing but awesome.  Well, awesome and ceiling squirrels and birds and probably lots of cockroaches.

I loved my personal, senior level studio space which was bestowed upon me once I had achieved a certain status level within the program…and once the real artists had graduated.  Sure, it was nothing more than a large closet with no windows and zero ventilation, but who needs ventilation when you are working with oil paints, turpentine, and my own personal, toxic medium mixture?  Ok, I did too, but if I had never installed my own box-fan-in-the-ceiling-tiles-ventilation-system™ and with it, intoxicated unknown quantities of the previously mentioned ceiling squirrels, who knows how many people would have died to a squirrel variant of Toxoplasmosis if such a thing were to exist.

From what I’ve read, it sounds like the department has moved into a really nice facility.  The move has also allowed the various other disciplines to move into the same building.  In the Art Barn era, graphic design, printmaking, and computer (lol amiga) art were in seperate buildings.  It also sounds like many people were really pushing hard to bring the old girl down.  It’s just a shame how spoiled we have become.  To expect things like non-leaking ceilings (dead squirrels can only plug so many holes), non-collapsing floors (dead squirels can only hold up so many floor boards), temperature control,  accessability, safety, air.  Sickening.