This week, I had a fun evening of cocktails AND painting with my best friend. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I’m not kidding. We went to Palettes in Natick. Here’s how it works: You sign up to take “a class,” where an instructor leads the group in doing a painting…step-by-step. I know. You art snobs out there have already clicked “close” on this window, right? BUT WAIT!!! How much fun is it to MINDLESSLY work on a painting, and just enjoy the act of blobbing on bright colors (with a caipirinha in hand, mind you)??? SO much fun. Here’s the painting that a roomful of people painted simultaneously:
(I will explain why it’s so blurry in a minute)
Now, I would NEVER have painted this if left to my own devices. BUT, I found it really freeing to let go of all expectations, and just paint. One other thing that made it interesting was walking around the room to see each person’s version of this SAME painting. Notice how narrow my boat is…in comparison, my friend’s boat was wide. I found this to be a metaphor for our personalities…she is warm and open, and I am crabby and sullen. No? Well, I think that I’m onto something…
Okay, now why the image is so blurry:
I have a four-year old son.
Need I say more? I walked by the dining room table this week, noticed my camera sitting unusually close to him. He also had a rather guilty expression on his face. The camera looked fine, so I didn’t say anything. Well…now, as you can see, my Leica lens is now coated with one or all of the following: 1.maple syrup, 2. saliva, 3. rice milk, 4. chewed up waffle. While I think that the lens may be pretty much ruined, I think that I now have a “fuzzy filter” lens, which can likely take very flattering portraits. I may have a career opporunity in either taking fuzzy photos, or letting my son ruin other people’s cameras so that they too can have “soft focus” photos. Sigh.
I think that my motto as a parent is just that: “sigh”
We made a miniature living room set out of playdoh this week:
I tried to convince him to do a “low arm” sofa, but he insisted on “english arms.” Go figure.
I think that I finished that drawing from last week:
Looks better, right? (you must agree with me, lest I be offended) I was toying around with the idea of drawing these in charcoal, but do you know what?
CHARCOAL IS MESSY.
I’m sure that’s my lack of skill with charcoal, but jeez…that sooty black dust gets EVERYWHERE. I am already a messy person, so I’m not sure that using a messy medium is the way to go. I’m kind of asking for trouble, I think. People will see me coated with black dust in the grocery store and wonder if I am a chimney sweep. “Oh no,” I’ll say, “I’m an ah-tist!” Weird looks will abound. I still getting used to the odd looks that I get from the employees in either hardware stores, or Home Depot. I’m not sure that I want to add odd looks from grocery store clerks as well…especially as they can be a rather odd lot themselves. (I apologize if anyone reading this is a grocery store clerk…perhaps that’s true just in our town.)
I am also sorry for any of you looking for a somewhat serious discussion about art this week. I got nuthin’. Check out this blog, for thoughtful insights and discussions about the art world:
http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/
Joanne Mattera is an uber-talented encaustic artist. She does beautiful work, and she generously writes a fabulous art blog. READ IT! NOW! While her blog would be likened to a gourmet meal, mine is more similar to a bag of Cheetos.
Sigh.
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slightly wonky 