Snorkels and the Fine Art of Inventory

Ready for anything!

I can’t recollect one art education class ever mentioning that at the end of every school year, you had to count all your supplies down to the last crayon, pencil and paintbrush.   They probably didn’t want to scare us out of art education entirely.   It was bad enough that our department resided in the basement of a building prone to flash flooding.  In heavy rains, we were instructed to run up the stairs, or carry snorkel gear.  Learning to avoid disaster instilled in me a keen sense of survival which has served me well during inventory season.   The following are some interesting, albeit, random observations about life and art as a result of the annual inventory ritual.   
  

1.        On Color:  If all the colors dressed as contestants in a beauty pageant, blue would win “Miss Popularity.” Anything in blue – paper, markers, paints, etc.  gets depleted first.   Always order extra blue.

2.       On Unusual Skills:  It takes years of practice, and bravado to refill glue bottles from a gallon jug of Elmer’s without spilling.  – I’m actually still working on this one;  I’ve got the bravado, but still working on accuracy.

3.       On things we take for granted:  Art as we know it will end if newspaper companies convert to publishing on line.

4.        On supplies:  An art room can’t have too many Styrofoam egg cartons.  They make convenient disposable palettes.

5.       On great unsolved mysteries:  The amount of paint shirts hanging on our storage room hooks nearly doubles every year.  I ruthlessly weed out intruders in May or they’d take over an entire wall.

6.       On dinner during inventory season:  If you have speed dial on your phone, the number one position should read “Pizza Hut” because that’s what your family will eat until inventory is completed.

Due to some unusual state funding deadlines, my inventory and order had to be completed early.  For the first time in 14 years, I’m really enjoying a more leisurely pace as the last week of school unwinds and eating home-cooked food.