I have some wonderful projects from this week that resemble the work of Anne Grgich, Traci Bautista, Beryl Taylor and Leighanna Light. Aside from getting the unfinished ones done now the question is, "how do I take what I've learned and make it my own?"
Voice Lessons with Carla Sonheim included a one-on-one critique of work created prior to the class that we'd brought with us. Carla went around and was able to look, evaluate, answer questions, etc. as everyone else worked. It was interesting to hear the comments and conversations. I was sure it was going to look as if my work was busy, chaotic, just coming short of including the kitchen sink. That wasn't the case at all.
Isn't it funny what our perspective is of our own work? I am very comfortable creating in a workshop environment. I enjoy the sharing of ideas and feeding off the energy and enthusiasm. Yet, working on my own, in the studio, I am constantly full of self doubt. I often ask myself, "how is what I do any different than what's already out there?" (For one, I 'm not afraid to use a nipple from a baby bottle in my work, lol).
Here's another tidbit as a result of AU. I mentioned, in therapy, that "lovely" pit in my stomach when I was drawing with charcoal this week. That dread of drawing classes in college. Even that gorgeous guy walking on campus turning out to be our nude model wasn't enough to make me dread the class any less!
Nan, (my therapist), zeroed in on my comment and told me to focus on that, find my target, bring a piece of charcoal next time and we'll work on it. I asked, how is it that in a span of weeks all these issues are coming to a head? "It's time," she said, I'm ready for a change. Grrrrrrrreat!
Now what did I do with that !#$%&@* piece of charcoal?
So far, so good. I've made some wisecracks about my therapy this summer about how it's working. I've found myself reacting to situations differently, for the better. It's refreshing not letting myself get all tangled up and stressed out. What's the expression? "Getting my knickers in a twist..." I'm not doing that. It's a good thing.
I seem to be getting a little introspective and perhaps a tad sappy. Not my intention to go off in that tangent. I do want to make use of all the knowledge and inspiration from this past week.
I'm not ready to think like a teacher. I still want to think like an artist. I'm pretty lucky that I can sort of do both. I might start my older kids with an Anne Grgich style portrait. OOoooh, fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment