art diary #21: studio notes
I'm getting over a cold.
Exciting news: I’m writing this edition of art diary from the studio I’ll be inhabiting for the next three months! I got the key(card, technically) on Sunday and was planning on moving my stuff in on Monday, but wasn’t able to get here until today—the raspiness in my throat turned out to not be laryngitis from singing too passionately at a wedding on Friday night, and was actually a pretty bad sore throat/head cold combo. I spent two and a half days in bed, but I’m feeling much better and was able to mobilize myself sufficiently to get most of my stuff over here today.
I had wanted to do a bit more of a studio tour, but since I’ve been here for all of 30 minutes and have basically just dumped my stuff wherever, I think I’ll leave that for next week when I’m hopefully more settled in. I tried to bring only the things I knew I would need rather than every art supply I’ve ever owned, but there are a few things I left behind that I plan on hauling over eventually. I’m also still in need of clip lights and some other accouterment for setting up still lifes; the artist I’m sharing the space with (James Rose, who has been super great) has kindly left some tables and chairs for me to use so at least I won’t have to sacrifice my kitchen chairs for the next few months. (I am also keeping an eye out on Craigslist for a stool and/or small tables; if you see something, let me know!)
It’s also Pride Month and the week leading up to my birthday, so that’s…exciting, I guess? I tend to get the “birthday blues” and feel pretty depressed around my birthday (“another trip around the sun and I still haven’t achieved anything worthwhile” type vibes), but it’s not been so bad this year—potentially because I’m sick and haven’t really been able to focus on it.
Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that I’m feeling a bit more “aligned in my purpose,” so to speak, than I have in previous years. Two years ago, while I was gearing up to spend a year studying at an atelier, I was still working full time as a software engineer and dealing with a very unpleasant workplace. Last year, I had just left said atelier feeling like I had no talent for drawing or painting at all, had no job prospects or upcoming freelance work, and had no idea what the next year of my life would look like.
This year, while I’m still pretty far from where I’d like to be career-wise, I have a steady job teaching art, a fairly steady stream of freelance work helping to pay the bills, and, for the next three months, a space of my own in which to paint, draw, and do whatever I want, basically (as long as it doesn’t involve aerosols). At the very least, I’m busy enough that the existential dread of getting a year older doesn’t seem quite as dreadful as it did last year. So happy birthday to me, I guess?
Wednesday, May 28
I had my abstract acrylic class tonight; since it was a smaller class with all new students, I tried to treat the class a bit more like one of my other classes, with more instruction and direction, than the “open studio” vibe it had previously. I started them on a color mixing exercise as a way to get them playing with the medium; as a part of that, I ended up doing a demo, which I haven’t done in an abstract class before. It went…okay. Abstract painting is hard.
Thursday, May 29
I taught my negative shapes in my beginner’s drawing class today; the last time I taught this lesson I felt it went quite well, and I think it was pretty successful this time as well. I’m finally feeling a level of comfort/competency with my drawing classes that I haven’t really had before.
My kid’s class is in the last few weeks (thank god) so I tried to get them started on a final project—designing a superhero/magical girl version of themselves, and then making a short comic introducing their super-selves. Reception was…okay. As usual, a handful of kids just flat-out refused to participate.
For beginner oils, we started a landscape. My original plan was to have them work on Hopper studies, but it slipped my mind when a student asked me last week what else we would be working on, and I just riffed and said landscapes. It’s fine, I’ll have the Sunday class do the Hoppers instead.
Friday, May 30
I had a wedding tonight in Philadelphia, so today was mostly packing, traveling, and then partying. I managed do a bit of a pen sketch on the hotel notepad before bed; I am still thinking about fish.
Saturday, May 31
Back home! Decided to redraw the red snapper I drew in pen last night. Working in the little scales was fun.
Sunday, June 1
I made it through my Sunday classes somehow today despite feeling distinctly not great; the oils class did a second day of the the still lifes they started two weeks ago (we had last Sunday off for Memorial Day), while the drawing class did value drawings. Both of these classes are significantly larger than my Thursday classes, so there’s less time for me to work on my demos after the initial demonstration. I was also running late for the oil class, which meant that I was rushing to prep the room and get everyone situated, so I think I painted, like, a single stroke? If that? Not enough to bother taking a photo of, anyway!
Monday, June 2
I got to thinking I hadn’t drawn hands in a while, so I pulled up some hands on Line of Action and did a few. And then for fun I did a quick blind contour of my own hand. I never fail to get a kick out of blind contour.
Tuesday, June 3
Our cats typically make themselves scarce when we watch TV at night, but Eleanor decided to nap in the wooden pods that hang to the left of the bed tonight, which meant that she was in a perfect position for me to draw her (although, of course, she wouldn’t sit still).
The next time we speak I’ll be officially another year older! Feeling a bit like Methuselah over here…