A year ago today, my parents’ number appeared on my phone. Gut instinct suggested it was bad news. It was. When I arrived at their house 30 minutes later – the home where I grew up – three empty police cars ominously waited in the twilight hours on the normally quiet suburban cul-de-sac. The words…
What defines a “master artist”? What defines a “master” anything? If I can copy a master artist’s painting does that make me a master? If I can produce master-like work on my own but I only churn out five works over my lifetime does that make me a master? Did the old masters know…
After making my way into Washington, DC with a classmate and finally finding a place to park (no small task on a Friday morning), we headed to the National Gallery of Art to see the “Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In” exhibit, which focuses on his watercolor paintings of windows. During his lifetime, the artist produced…
During the past few months I created this blog, bought a MacBook Pro laptop, a wireless printer and a new iPhone. For my birthday a couple weeks ago my generous and thoughtful boyfriend gave me a new semi-professional DSLR camera, and with a gift certificate from my brother and sister-in-law I bought a new lens. …
“You live in the image you have of the world. Every one of us lives in a different world, with different space and different time.” ~Alejandro Jodorowsky Flowing with momentum into weeks 8 and 9 of my watercolor class (nature studies), which started as a brief experiment in vulnerability but has now transformed into a…
Glass is fragile. I have accidentally broken more of it than I can remember. Jagged pieces discarded and forgotten. Glass distorts and reflects. It bends reality like dreams bend consciousness with mysterious and sometimes haunting effects. Glass is transparent. I know it has mass but I can see inside it and through it. Glass is…
Diving in to project 6, “Monochromatic Still Life Studies,” I wondered why anyone would want to approach painting with such limitation. As an artist who tends to throw a lot of color around, it seemed counterintuitive to me. On top of that, I sat in an area of the classroom where the still life…
Four days before class: I grip the X-Acto knife and slice deliberately into a piece of cardboard. I’m making a viewfinder. I don’t know what size window to cut so, with a strong need to be prepared, I make two different sizes. I am mildly aggravated at the lack of clear sizing and color instructions. …
Here is what I know: On September 20, 2014, after struggling with ever-worsening pain and addiction, my dad took his own life. Here is what I don’t know: Why he thought this was the only solution. The following eulogy, written by me, was graciously delivered by Rev. Carl Gnewuch during my dad’s memorial service at Prince of…
“I also had to learn that losing myself in my work was not dangerous.” ~from Virginia Valian’s essay ‘Learning to Work’ We jumped into class with our weekly critique. The task was to post a couple versions of last week’s 10-minute still life studies on the wall, offer quick comments on what we liked…
The Naked Notebook 