I spent the day at the 2009 Art Unraveled annual art retreat today, taking a class with the renowned Michael deMeng. The class, "What a Relief", taught the participants how to make two dimensional portraits to give the illusion that they are reaching out into the "real world". I've taken classes with him before and he is an excellent instructor. He is patient, humorous, and so helpful. He gives wonderful feedback, and has something constructive and supportive to say about each participant's artwork. He does something that no other instructor I've run into does; he reviews each participant's artwork with the whole class at the end of the session. This provides everyone the opportunity to see all the artwork en masse, and learn from his review. There are always lots of "oohs" and "aahs" as he holds up and discusses each piece.
Each time I participate in art classes or collaborative trades, I do the same thing. Get really excited at the prospect of learning something new or contributing to a collaborative effort. As the time for the activity draws near, I start wondering why I ever signed up, Why did I do this--I have no ideas, I'm going to be the only one who does not have wonderful pieces, I won't finish, everyone will wonder why I would possibly think I pass off anything as art, and on and on. Once I'm finally involved, I focus in on the task at hand and get it done. Then the doubt sets in again. Is it going to be good enough? What if it looks horrible and I'm humiliated, etc. And when it's all over, I am really glad I took the class or participated in a trade, and find out I did just fine all around. I wonder if anyone else goes through this angst!
"Building the Old West"
I've had this frame for about 28 years. (What was I thinking!) We were to bring a couple of gaudy old Gothic frames, and this seemed appropriate. The class goal was to produce pieces that were dimensional and then use paint and different sculpting materials to build up and mount various three dimensional items. Since this frame was ornate to begin with, I left it fairly plain without sculpting material, and did very little painting to the wood, as it was nicely colored to begin with. These are a couple of Old West fellows, proud of their expertise. One is a Trail Blazer, the other, a Rifle Expert.
"True Love Never Dies"
It seems I always revert to Halloween or Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) themes when it's up to me. This is a simple piece that shows a widow and her long dead husband, who still remembers their younger days and longs for her to join him. He is holding an old photo of the pair on their wedding day many, many years ago.
I have three more classes over this week and next--watercolor projects--which is brand new to me, and art journaling. I'm already obsessing over whether I made the right decision to try watercolors for the first time!
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