Revisiting the past

In Warren, a moment or two from 8 Mile and Van Dyke, there's a side street that goes back to my childhood.  Twenty years pass and I drive there to see firsthand what I missed.  The yard out in front of our apartment is exactly what I imagined, but homes beyond it never stuck with me.  Maybe I was never tall enough to see over the that treeless hill or the windows in our place.  Behind that shielding front passenger seat of our beat up car, I imagined a butterfly of highways, looping over and over, somehow branching out to our parking lot.  Each time we'd head home, I'd ask my mother, with what must have been genuine naivete, "Are we going back to America?"  That's what I knew that place as.  Some things seem so crystal clear when you're a kid.

Post Europe

Just two months ago, I was in London's Trafalgar Square witnessing a bicycle and moterbike rally, walking past St. Paul's Cathedral on my way to the Tate Modern, and buying groceries for dinner from a Sainsbury's supermarket.  I spent more time in Europe than I've been back in the United States so far.  This comes to me as a shock when I ponder it.  For part of May and all of June/July, I studied abroad through school, visiting cultural capitals in Europe.  Immediately following, I spent the month of August with family in Romania.  Despite courses concluding, I was still traveling nearly non-stop.  Since then, I moved to Ypsilanti, across from Eastern's campus with plans to graduate this coming winter.

I put up a new website for my portfolio and resume recently at www.alexmandrila.com.  Some friends from my portfolio class and I are putting on a show at the University of Michigan Union Art Lounge, lasting through the month of November.  Our reception is this Saturday, from 6:30 - 8:30pm.  I'm excited for the experience handling shows.