I had already finished my 1st of 3 paintings made at aTi this summer when these journal notes began. As I said, unlike last summer at aTi which was my 1st time painting since I was a 15 year art major at a school of the arts where I now teach, I was not exuberant the whole time I painted this summer. Instead, I was much harder on myself, partially because the bar was raised.
(My attempts to save gas money by finding shorter routes for what began as a 50 minute commute were not as sucessful as hoped [until the day before the program ended of course--though I did get it down to 30 min]). As much as I still loved the program & was dying to do even better & more than last year, I painted the same amount and only loved the outcome with one of my paintings.
I would feed my growling stomach with those aTi breakfasts & my caffeine fix before feeding my soul. That would be before rushing in only to spend way too much time sorting through magazines and photos or otherwise trying to decide on my subject matter which I would have had ready had I not spent so much time at home trying to fulfill so many other priorities that I never find time to do during the school year... My nerves were in frays the whole time because I so desperately wanted to do a great job. I've heard of writer's block before but painter's block was a new one.
To make matters worse, our teacher, Kit, makes us spend a maximum of 2 days on the 1st painting which in reality amounted to about 3 hours in my case this time. I never fully understood the rationale for this 2-days-only-for-1st-painting-thing beyond motivating & impressing people with how much can be done in little time. However, that could be because I was having a senior moment while Kit was explaining it.
The painting of a meadow that I unwittingly settled on for that one turned out "alright" but I still plan to do more to my "Meadow Medley"--along with all 7 other paintings I've made in the last year. I have yet to find a moment to paint outside of aTi despite buying all this equipment to do so but it's thanks only to aTi that I could accomplish that many.
The 2nd one this summer was my 1st attempt at abstract painting & because the only colors in it are some version of black, white, or some shade of grey, I've actually named it "Shades of Grey." It was created for my hairstylist who requested one for "the white room" in his new club after viewing the others I'd made. He even offered to let me give art shows there!!!
The last one, "Sister Butterfly," is the 2nd most special one of them all. I LOVE the 3 made last summer but it is really only this last of these 3 made 7/7-18/08 that I feel this way about. Yet ironically, the teacher & April Armstrong--1 of the other painters from both summers who I became good friends with & whose paintings I most admired when she was also there last summer-- said they saw a lot of growth in these 3 compared to the work I did back then! Go figure. You can see a not-so-good-photo of this 1st & last painting of the summer in my art exhibit entry.
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