m. p i l g r i m (art)

Art school is so very different from taking community art classes. Community art:   Hi, I'm your teacher, and I want you to come up here and watch me do this thing or technique....Now, here's a list of art supplies.  Don't spend too much, just go to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and get whatever is on sale.  Get student paints, like the ones Liquitex makes.  They're cheapest. Oh, and bring in some photos of what you'd like to paint!  What's that? How many? Oh gosh, that's up to you.  How many paintings do you want to do in our six weeks together? We're going to have such  fun!! Art School:   Hi, I'm your art instructor.  Now watch what I do, and this is how you should do it too.  I'm not saying you have to do it this way...just saying that if your art instructor says to do it, then do it.  Also, here's a list of supplies you'll need DO NOT LET ME SEE A SINGLE TUBE OF LIQUITEX BASICS IN THIS ROOM you need to get qual...

final painting: mornings without you. i think the most important lesson I've learned so far in the past 12 months is that sometimes art, in its process, looks really, really, really crappy.  shitty even.  until it doesn't.  until that happens, i tolerate the awful until it become unbearable. then i close up my paints, clean out my brushes, and walk away for a while. it  always  looks horrible close up  during .  i finally know why paint brushes can come in such long lengths - so you can back up as far as possible from a painting which, for me, looks really, just, well,  awful  close up. case and point: the current work.  a friend send me a link to a fundraiser to end homelessness.  a local nonprofit invites local artists to submit works to be auctioned off.  "we respectfully ask that the work be worth at least $25" the theme is to be, what makes home  home?   i had just recently been moved one morning to...

I have fallen behind on my blogging because blogger isn't terribly iPhone friendly.  I tried downloading an app called "Blogo" on the mac.  It sucks.  I wrote the developers and told them so.  There's a decent little IOS app on my iPhone, but I suck on those tiny little keyboards.  Don't even get me started on the autocorrect debacle.   Seriously?   Acrid lickers ? No, autocorrect, clearly I meant  acrylics .  Dude.  Seriously.   Now, for a while I've had an idea in my head of something I wanted to create.  A canvas divided into fourths, with a closeup of a cactus in each.  This past week I finally started working on it. I have no shortage of cactus pictures, or pictures of things close up - it's one of my favorite subjects.   Internal questions:  1) I'd like to line between the quarters to be sharper. 2) What will go in the fourth quarter? 2) The cholla flowers need to be pinker.   In unrelated news th...

  I'm taking a class in small metals, which includes making jewelry. Project 1: "Cold Connections" project.  We were to design, make a model of, and build an item using metal.  Cold Connections refers to the lack of soldering, mainly.  It involves rivets and tabs.   My project is a little decorative/artsy item that will have a small spinner inside it.  The spinner can be turned to indicate the weather outside.   After my initial model, I spent more time working on the design, including sketches.  I decided to do away with the tabs holding on the top piece, and include it in the spacers and rivets.  I had to design the axis on which the weather elements will turn - it will include   Sawing, let me tell you, is a bitch.  Behind, a saw blade: I broke about ten of these little bastards while cutting out my pieces.    After cutting out the pieces, my next step was to drill holes.  This involes a drill and hopefully, n...

  In April and May, I took a portrait class.  I feel like I made some really good progress. Here are my beginning portraits, prior to and at the very start of class: During  Here are my portraits at the end of class: You can see more of  my portrait work here.

 I recently enrolled at a local community college whom, I'm told, has a decent art program.  I'm enough of a nerd that depth matters to me, so I decided to take full-on college-level art classes.  In doing so, several interesting things happened: 1.  I had to apply to go to college as an undergraduate.  I already have a college degree in fact a graduate degree, so this was fun.  It was online.  A few days later, a 19-year-old called me and welcomed me to the college. "So, like, have you scheduled your Acuplacer Test yet?" "My what?" "Your Acuplacer test.  Have you, like, scheduled it?" "Yeah . Um....I'm not going to take your test." She was flustered.  "Oh.  Um.  Well, oh..." I rescued her.  "I already have a college degree." She was happy to have been spared the inevitable confrontation and replied, happily, "you probably don't need to take the Acuplacer then." "No.  I don't think so." ...