Good thing I waited on creating that new slide show: the professor asked me not to talk about a particular painting (Arnolfini Wedding Portrait), because she was going to spend an entire period talking about the symbols in it.  That painting was going to be the cornerstone of my presentation!  Since we were meeting today, I decided to make a list of all the art I was going to use and see if there were any other paintings to avoid.

It was great to see her again.  The school and the classroom looked the same.  On the way up the stairs, I did some mental calculations about how long it had been since I was a student here.  I had to check my math twice because it didn’t seem right – I was a student here 18 years ago!  Man, it seems like yesterday, yet, my son was born after I had attended Mission College, and he’s 17.

The one thing that had changed in the classroom was the advent of computer technology (Yeah!).  She had a video projector and a computer, yet also still kept her slide trays in the back.  I was unfamiliar with her way of presenting the slides (she used some sort of media library), so I asked if I could do mine in powerpoint.  She said that powerpoint would be fine.

It was a good thing I had my list of paintings with me, about half of them were off limits for one reason or another.  Still, I definitely have enough to work with so I can start creating presentation #2 tomorrow.

Good news, I will, in all likelihood, also teach in her ancient to medieval class sometime in November, so I can use the slideshow I created yesterday.  My day wasn’t wasted!

For now though, I must create an engaging slideshow on Northern Renaissance symbols which will be 30-45 minutes in length.  It’s a little longer than I had hoped for, but she said that I have no actual constraints – when I’m done, I’m done.

Though not expecting this, I also get a small honorarium for guest speaking.  $50.  And here I was happy just to get a free parking pass and an opportunity to speak!