A year ago, I wrote about the fact that I was graduating from college (again, this time from art school), and how at first I was melancholy about that fact, but later it turned out to be not so bad, because I'd received an offer for a job on the tech support staff there.

Today was Graduation Day again... not for me, but for this year's seniors. I went to the ceremony, this time as a staff member. In part it was to support some of the students I'm aquainted with, to see them off as it were. Mostly it was for the shows.

The week between the end of classes and graudation, is the Student Exhibition. Every graduating senior gets a spot in the building to present a sample of their work. The illustrators show off their cartoons and portraits, the interior design students pin up a punch of floor plans and swatches, the industrial designers and furniture designers display their plans and models, the digital media people run their DVDs and web sites, the graphic designers put up their posters and packages, and the painters and sculptors and photographers present their paintings and sculptures and photographs. There's always a lot of great art to see, and I've always tried to see it all. Even though I was in the building all last week, I didn't have time to see much of, because I was busy with other things. So I went down early before the commencement ceremony to give myself a tour.

The other show is the commencement ceremony itself. The college has a wonderful tradition of allowing (requiring, actually) each graduating senior to submit an image of their work to be projected on a huge screen at the front of the church auditorium as they receive their diploma. It's even harder on the students than their exhibition space is, because they have to pick just one. But it means that the bulk of the ceremony (an hour and a half total) is devoted to a slide show of really good art.

In some ways, this year it was a bit more hectic than last, because I was responsible for providing all of the technological gear and making it work, for the Student Exhibition. (They hire professionals to handle the display at the ceremony.) So it wasn't just one multimedia presentation (my own) like last year, but a few dozen. But I enjoyed it more, because this time my "day job" was one that I actually like, and my boss, several faculty, and even a couple students had told me how much they appreciated what I was doing.