I am! I tend to have a bunch of projects going at once, so if I get stuck on one I can work on another. I'm not sure, but I can ask her! She's a tutor at the art school I go to. The book is sort of music-related. It's an autobiography of a fictional musician I wrote about two years ago. Nothing too great, only 40k words, but I'm still moderately pleased with it. Printmaking has been one of the more enjoyable projects I've done this semester (the others being sculpture and photography). I like it because it's a bit freer than photography was (which I just finished). The effects you can get with monoprinting and diluted ink are really fantastic, too - sort of atmospheric.
That sounds like a cool concept for a book. I've never written a book before, but I did study writing in school. It was basically four years of bashing students heads in with the mantra "writing=rewriting" while making us read, write original pieces and then learning to take notes as our classmates gleefully destroyed the pieces we brought to class. Good, clean fun. I'd be interested to see how these turn out, if you care to post them. Also, if you could ask about the daguerrotypes, that would be rad. I know I can probably find the answer on the internet, but I'm trying to ask people for things instead of machines.
I wouldn't mind studying writing at some point, but I want to do some more major writing projects before I do, in case it changes the way I work (which I'm sure it will). The change would be interesting, I think. Sure thing! I'll grab some photos sometime soon and post 'em here or something. Give #art some more use :D I'll ask next time I run into her (which, granted, might not be until Wednesday, but still).
Yeah, that's generally how art education works. They try to iron the wildness out of people, which is exactly what they should be cultivating. Still, they're out to make money. I think in any education, it's better to go into it with a clear idea of who you are and how you'd like to accomplish things. Good professors tend to adapt to that and offering guidance, instead of trying to make students adapt to their vision of what something should be. Cheers man!
I, the school I'm at now has a pretty clear idea of what they want and expect from their students, but are open enough to allow quite a lot of variation. I was expecting them to be really harsh on my workbook - I don't draw at all, and instead I write out my ideas, whereas they expect a full working book from their students. They sorta just took it in their stride, though, which was nice.