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Proud just like a Mama

As, I may have mentioned before, I have been teaching art for three years now.  Two years at the high school level, and one at the elementary. Teaching is full of its challenges and rewards.  There have been many moments in my teaching career that I have wondered why I am doing this, and then there are the moments that make everything worth it. It is those worthwhile moments that I live for.

One of those moments came to me in an unexpected place the other day, 

during a girls night surrounded by close friends. 

The date was set, we were excited to get together, but the inevitable question always arises: What should we do?  Dinner's great, but what do you do for the rest of the night? Movies don't allow socialization, and we knew we did not want to just sit around watching TV at someone's house...

A trend has started popping up across Georgia...Places where mainly women can go to drink wine with their girlfriends and be guided by an instructor to paint the painting of the night.  I've done this before, and had fun; but for an artist it's not really challenging. It's what I like to call, follow the leader art. Great for non-artist! Regardless it's still a great thing for me to do with my friends who don't normally paint or create.  Although, there was one problem none of us liked the painting that night. Why spend $30+ on something I'll probably paint over, and the other girl's wont hang in their house.  So I got the big idea to pack up my art supplies, and do our own version of this, but each of us got to paint what we wanted.  I wasn't sure how this was going to work considering they haven't really painted since elementary school. I was pleasantly surprised!  All three of us turned out with very different awesome paintings, and they did all the work themselves with minimal assistance.  Getting to see their results really gave me that proud mama feeling!

This was what I was able to complete during our time together. 

I love painting with others around. I feel less anti-social that way. 

And these two painting were painted by two people who haven't painted since elementary school.

Aren't they amazing!?!

The Flood Family Photos

I had the pleasure of photographing the Flood Family a few weeks ago.

When photographing on location a photographer always hopes that the natural lighting will work in the photographers favor, but that is not always the case.   When I arrived on location the lighting was perfect, but I knew that this would not last for long a storm was fast approaching. Luckily we had a covered area that we could keep dry or semi-dry, and continue the shoot without having to reschedule.   With the help of my new 35mm lens I was able to capture the detail even in a low light situation. 

Challenges of Non-objective art

I love working non-objectively it suits my impatient nature at times.  It allows me to work much quicker then if I were painting something that required a lot more details. However, non-objective art creates some very unique challenges. I'm never quite sure when to call a non-object piece of art work finished...

Tell me what you think?  Does it need anything else?

I really love the process that I went through in creating this painting.  This piece was commissioned, but the only requirements given were that it needed to be non-objective, similar to the painting I have over my couch (can be seen in an earlier blog: Fear and Loathing Art Making), and it needed to include blue. I started the yellow back ground months ago but was not ever really sure how I wanted the painting to end up. It was not until I found the rectangular, rusted metal object on the left side of the painting that inspiration hit, and the rest is history.

The Certainty of Uncertainty

“People who need certainty in their lives are less likely to make art that is risky, subversive, complicated, iffy, suggestive, or spontaneous….Simply put, making art is chancy-it doesn’t mix well with predictability.”

-          Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Art Making , By: David Bayles & Ted Orland

Describing me as risky or spontaneous is not the words that I would use.  I am just not that type of person, but I am an ARTIST.  In many ways I always knew my personality inhibited my creativity or more so my willingness to put myself out there. I became a teacher because it was safe, and not as risky as some of the other career choices that I could have made.  That’s what this blog is about for me, it to help me learn how to put myself out there.  I have ideas stored away in my sketch book waiting to come out, but then there is the part of me that wonders who would buy it, and if no one is going to buy it and I don’t have a spot for it in my home then what is the point of making it?  My practical side always gets in my way…

It’s time to ignore my practical side for a moment, and give the creative side a chance.  And you know what?  I’ve actually been doing just that.  I started want of those ideas stored away in my sketchbook, and am finally finishing a painting that I’ve been promising to a friend. Maybe this will be an Artful summer for me after all.  (That’s what I told all my students as they left for summer break…”Have an Artful summer.  When you get bored pick up some are supplies and create.")  Maybe I will actually practice what I teach this summer.

This is the idea from my sketch book that is now getting turned into a painting.

More pictures to come of the paintings in progress...