Our acrylics class final: paint your obsession. I asked a few classmates what the assignment meant and got a few different answers, but their confusion was understandable after I asked the instructor for clarification. He asked me what my obsession is. Well, I wouldn't say I'm really obsessed with anything, or on the other hand, I'm obsessed with about 10,000 different things. He didn't really have an answer for this so he told me to think about what my obsession is and then we'll talk about how to paint it. My mind ran through all the things I'm obsessed with: California, Los Angeles, freeways, driving, nature, mountains, tomatoes, zucchini, gardening, weather, Greg, my animals, home-improvement, food, cooking, preserving, sewing, knitting, spinning, fiber, metal, jewelry, art, wine, coffee, happy hour, $3 martinis, fidm, office politics, world politics, news, 24, gossip girl, tv, my couch, oak trees, pickled peppers, beer, and butter. But I don't want to create a final project that simply fulfills the assignment, or satisfies his aesthetic, and I certainly don't want to paint a picture of wine. I want to love it enough to hang it on my wall. So I settled on LA. In particular, I'm thinking of this picture that I took on the 2 Freeway:



When I told him I wanted to paint Los Angeles, he asked me if I'm really obsessed with it. Well, yes and no. To the degree that I'm obsessed with anything, I'm obsessed with Los Angeles. Well what do you love about it he asked. I love downtown, I love the freeways, I love how raw it is, I love the weather, I love everything about it. How is that different than New York he asked. Don't just paint what you see he says. How do you make it more interesting than just painting that picture he asked. OMFG. I didn't answer his questions because I'm at a boiling point with him and the next thing out of my mouth is going to be something along the lines of what a godawful teacher he is and how he hasn't even taught me to paint, so how the hell am I going to push myself beyond something he hasn't even taught me.

So I just sat there, prepared to wait out the 5 hour class because I need more time to contemplate this (he won't let us leave early even if all we're doing is homework). But he kept annoying me to start something, anything, even if I don't put any thought into it. How do you work best he asked. Do you like to just dive in or take some time to think about it he asked. I need to really mull over every project for at least a few days (and this is part of what drives me nuts about him because he doesn't explain the projects in advance). So do something different and just dive right in without thinking about it he says. OMFG. Leave me alone damnit, I'm really about to rip your head off right now. So I ignored him and spent the rest of the class period painting the above picture, even though it won't be my final because even if I do paint the above picture for my final, it will be on a different canvas.

The good news: He decided to push up the final to December 14, but I'm outta town that day so I'm turning in my final on December 7. That means I'm almost done. I just have to decide what to paint for this stoopid final.

Whew, that was some hardcore procrastination. I've reached the conclusion that I hate my acrylics class and I hate the last two assignments, so I just didn't do them until the very last minute. But they're finally done, and all I have left is the final (unless the teacher springs something else on us tonight, which wouldn't surprise me at this point).

I'm not even sure I can explain these assignments. I understand what the teacher wants, but every time I really think it through or try to describe it, it doesn't make any sense. The first one had to be a large (18x24) painting with "pattern" that should be somewhat stylized. Sortof. Um, yeah. Really not sure how to explain it, and I wasn't even sure how to approach it so I painted an oil rig on meat. I think it's pretty awful but I get a kick out of how trite it is and what kind of assumptions people will make about what it means.



The next assignment was to paint an "obsessive pattern." When he says pattern what he really means is stylized with a pattern. He seems to favor a very illustrative, modern style with a Los Angeles kindof vibe, which is a type of art I happen to hate and don't want to produce. So I made myself nuts trying to think of an obsessive pattern to paint that would fit within his aesthetic and finally said f*ck it and found an obsessive pattern in nature and painted it the way I wanted to. If pigeons aren't obsessive I don't know what is. And I actually like this piece, which tells me I did the right thing.



Just one more month. Now what in the heck am I going to paint for the final project? I might need to do some hardcore procrastination. I mean, I might need to mull it over for awhile.

I wrote a review of the book Design Anarchy for work, but they won't run it because it has the word sex in it. They wanted to change the word to intimacy or something but it's a part of a direct quote from the book so I told them to either run it as-is or not run it at all. Whatever. I might as well post it here so somebody can read it:


“We are drowning in a media-fed fantasy. We are the first generation in human history to have our lives shaped – not by nature – but by the beguiling images of the electronic media. We spend more hours watching nature shows than experiencing the real thing; more time laughing at TV jokes than joking around ourselves; more evenings experiencing virtual sex than actually having sex ourselves. As we forego the role of participant in the real world, we become spectators in the flickering world of make believe.” This is the premise of Design Anarchy, a book that grew out of the work of Adbusters magazine. It’s a work meant to inspire new ways of thinking about design, and a call to action for artists, designers, and architects to reconsider the focus of their work.

Design Anarchy has an agenda, just as do the corporate media that they’re advocating against. Read it with an open mind and the book will raise your awareness about how design has become a vehicle solely for marketing, and it has invaded every part of our lives. Cleverly designed ads assault us not just on TV or the internet, but they surround us in the physical world. Design Anarchy makes links between pervasive advertisement and our increasingly consumerist culture, and the destruction of the environment and our well-being. We are increasingly disillusioned, distracted, and depressed, and there is reason to believe that our disconnection with nature, each other, and the true purpose of art are all part of the cause.

Some environmental pollution, like wastewater in the ocean, is easy to see and everyone easily understands the negative consequences. But what about noise pollution? When was the last time you experienced complete silence? What about light pollution? When was the last time you looked at the stars? What about visual pollution? When was the last time you were able to walk down the street without seeing some kind of advertising? Design Anarchy asks artists to reconsider using their skills for marketing, and instead figure out ways to use their skills for the common good. They want a design revolution, but admittedly, it won’t be easy. “Design Anarchy is madness. Choose it only if you’re certain the other options will corrode your soul and give you a bleeding ulcer. Only if you know you are among the chosen few designers who hold Prometheus’ holy fire in your hands. You’ll suffer for years and live like a stray dog, but you’ll have the joy of breaking all the rules, of freely mixing art and politics, of pouring your beliefs and convictions into your work. Eventually, if you’re really as brilliant as you think, you’ll have a crack at pushing the boundaries of global culture with bold new forms and fresh ways of being.”

Design Anarchy. Adbusters Media Foundation. 2006.

This is the kind of shit that makes me worry about my future in art:

http://try-har-der.blogspot.com/2009/11/greta-svalberg-ucla-mfa-2010-exhibition.html

There's an average-quality painting in there, maybe some interesting textile pieces (hard to tell from the pictures) but for the most part it's all just garbage. Would you hang any of those pieces individually on your wall? Would you install the whole exhibit in your house? I'm guessing not many people would, so then it's just art for exhibit's sake and it has no future? Oh, I'm sure it's about pushing boundaries and making people think and yadda yadda yadda. Whatever.

My artistic philosophy (wow, did I really just say that?) at the moment is that I want to create artworks that are aesthetically pleasing and that can be hung on your wall in a traditional manner. But it seems like this is old-fashioned and to get attention in the art world you have to create surreal or cutesy or ironic pieces and making it aesthetically pleasing or "usable" is not required. My teacher was talking about this trend and said that some art schools have been dropping their fundamentals classes. Figure drawing isn't even required at some schools anymore. But he also said the trend might be coming to an end, and people are moving back to realism. That might make me happy if I wasn't so annoyed that the art world is based on trends. It's also based on who you know of course, and sucking up to rich people with bad taste isn't on my agenda. Oh good lord now I sound like my dad, but maybe he's right about not marketing his work and being a curmudgeon about it when he does.

I'm really glad I'm still a student and that there's a bunch more art classes I want to take at SMC before I even consider a master's. Maybe it will give the art world time to come back to reality and then I might actually be accepted to a program with my pretty little pictures of trees.

Thank goodness for my billion and one hobbies and commitments because I have plenty of procrastination and avoidance fodder. I will now spend the rest of the day baking bread and making pizza sauce and not thinking about art at all.

I got all caught up on my homework right before class, but of course now I have a new assignment so the feeling of accomplishment was short-lived. I do love how both of them turned out though. The first was a lesson about sanding. We were to paint several layers of different colors and let each one dry before adding another layer. Then sand them off in such a way that it makes an interesting background and paint something on top of it. I couldn't get a good picture of this to save my life, so I just shot it in it's current home:



I used a piece of 80-year-old fir that Greg rescued from the job site and then planed down for me. It took me 2 days to get all those layers down and sanding them was quite the chore, but the finished piece is really striking (in person).

The mountains gave me trouble and I tried to explain to it the teacher, hoping to elicit some helpful advice. I told him that mountains essentially look just like drapery, and I always struggle with drapery when I'm drawing. His response (which he intended as a compliment): "No, it doesn't read as drapery, it reads as mountains." Wait, what? Was he even listening? This happens ALL THE TIME during our demos. A student asks a question or makes a comment and he COMPLETELY misinterprets what they're saying, without even trying to clarify. Geez I'm so annoyed with this guy. Tonight he told us that there's essentially no difference between this class and learning how to paint via YouTube. He's probably right, except YouTube is cheaper and possibly more effective. Oh well, I need the discipline of a class to keep me focused, and I'm obviously still getting something out of it. I mean, a few weeks ago I couldn't paint the way I'm painting now, so that's a good sign.

The other recent assignment was to paint on plexiglass. Essentially it's like working backwards, because you flip it over to view it through the plexi when you're done. So, rather than starting with your background and building up to highlights, you have to start with your highlights and foreground and build back to the background. If you make a mistake, you can't correct it because everything you lay down is visible in front of all the paint strokes that follow. It was really challenging, but so much fun, and I like the way it turned out. It seems more vibrant somehow than painting on paper or canvas. Again, photographing this was a pain, so here's the best I could do:



Now I wonder how I could frame or hang that one?

I just reworked the art section of my website because I actually have too much art to fit on one big art page.

I was too busy showing art to do my art class homework so I'm a little behind. But I did get one assignment done as we sat there watching our art. This is a re-do of No Cars Go. Still frustrated with the foreground but it's getting there.



That was the second assignment where the teacher told us to just paint whatever we want. Something I think he should have done at the very first session of the class, not in the middle of the semester when I'm expecting to actually learn some techniques. Obviously I'm not thrilled with my acrylics class, but it's getting slightly better since I had a chance to tell my instructor where I'm coming from. I finally got to tell him that I'VE NEVER PAINTED BEFORE. Seriously. Not since I was a kid. I only just learned how to draw a couple months ago, and I need basic instruction on things like what paintstrokes to use for what effects. I'm not getting it in this class, even though it's a beginning painting class and his critiques and demos easily take up half of the 5 hour session. But since explaining my situation to him, he seems to check up on me more often, and he's a bit more forthcoming with helpful suggestions.

Despite my irritation at things I can't control, I'm getting positive feedback from the other students and my teacher on my paintings. The teacher says I'm a "realist" and it seems there aren't many of us left in the art world. I heard it a lot during artwalk too. Comments like "ohhhhh, pastels! you never see pastels anymore!" or "wow, landscapes... that's so old-fashioned" and the folks who were most interested in them were older, all of which I take as big compliments. I have issues with the trend towards doing whatever you want and calling it art without ever learning realism. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm going to keep learning the fundamentals even if I have to force my teachers to teach them.

Indie Printing is the best thing ever. They offered a special promotion to folks showing at the Brewery Artwalk this weekend, to print our postcards for free if they could put their ad on the back. Despite my missing the deadline and then having a whole bunch of technical difficulties that made me miss the deadline even more, they turned around my postcards around in less than a day and still didn't charge me anything for them. They also stayed open 10 minutes past closing so I could pick them up after I got off work. And they are seriously the nicest people ever and they answer every email within approximately 2 seconds.



My friend had an equally positive experience. If you need printing done in lovely Los Angeles, you really should consider sending your business their way.

I intended to add bubbles, and with this color for the ground they'd look like root beer and that's kinda cool, but I love the apple in all it's wonderful simplicity. Now I don't know whether to add bubbles or not.

In today's email:

I guess that means I'm going to St. Louis. In January. Let me say that again. St. Louis. In January. I think I'm gonna need a down-lined business suit.

Actually they don't even have to be warm. Cold frames are good too. Really any kind of frame, because it means I'm one step closer to being ready to show.




Happiness also comes in blueberry flavor:




Friends and lovers, come visit me and my art this weekend at the Brewery Artwalk. (http://breweryartwalk.com/) I'll be at my friend's studio in the Atrium. Wander around long enough and I'm sure you'll find me. I'll be the one with the bottomless cup of coffee because I'm probably not going to sleep between now and then. Framing those pastels was just the beginning of the Artwalk preparation. I think I need to quit that pesky day job. It's always getting in the way of my fun.

Funny thing about actually liking the last few pieces I've done is that it gives me less confidence, not more. I'm not so sure I can repeat any of my successes, no matter how modest they may have been in the first place. I'm actually not happy with this piece at all, and I've been fiddling with it too long to be able to figure out how to fix it. Any comments/suggestions/criticisms welcome.

Drawering fiddled with and image replaced 10/19. Fiddled with some more and replaced again later the same day. But it's done now, I swear. If I get the impulse to fiddle with it anymore I'm just going to throw it in the trash.

Painting was changed and image edited 10/11/2009.

Last weekend I made my own horseradish. I don't even eat horseradish but I was prompted by a pickled pepper recipe and my curiosity about just how hard it is. Turns out it's not hard at all actually.

You just buy this funky lookin' root, or grow it, but I bought mine:




Then cut off the outside shmutz:




Dice it and put on your respirator or hold your breath and give it a spin in the food processor. While still holding your breath, add cider vinegar until it's spreadable, then while still holding your breath add salt and a few tablespoons of sugar. Then pour into jars, while still holding your breath, and put it away in your fridge, where it'll keep for a few months. Breath at your own risk.




I don't even eat horseradish but this stuff is tasty.

A few weeks ago my backyard was feeling a little too cluttered, too dirty, too unkempt, and totally uninviting. Amazing what a difference two weekends make. Now I don't want to do anything but sit on my deck. It's hard to capture in photos, but here's a few.







I didn't get a "before" photo of the area by the chicken coop, but basically all those pots were sortof scattered throughout that gravel area, and clustered around the pine tree, and we had planted a little oak tree near where the grill is now. So we moved everything back to create more space and got ourselves a lifetime of bad kharma by ripping out the little oak tree, but we'll plant another one on our hill and redeem ourselves. Moving all that stuff and cleaning off the deck and ripping out that bed has made our backyard so spacious and inviting. If you need me I'll be laying in the sun pretending I don't have chores to do.

I signed up for this acrylics class to learn the technical skill of painting with acrylics. I'm stuck with a teacher who wants us to be experimental and hardly teaches us any techniques at all. And now get this... tonight he didn't teach us anything at all. He told us to just paint whatever we want. But the entire critique leading up to this assignment was all about how we should push our creativity and not always paint realistically, blah blah blah. So I actually called him on it. I told him that when he says he wants us to paint whatever we want, I get the impression that he doesn't really mean it. He was confused. Maybe I'm being too antagonistic. I think we're just a really bad fit.

But anyway, he liked the one I turned in tonight. The assignment was to do an underdrawing with different mediums and paint over it in analagous colors (3 of them). I did the underdrawing with pen and color pencil and then painted over the top of the tracks with a silver paint pen.



But just because he liked it means nothing when it comes to his critique. The perspective looks wrong (even though it was like that in the photo I should have changed it to make it appear right in the painting) and he told me a lot about what he would have liked to have seen, blah blah blah... whatever.

Tonight I could paint whatever I wanted so I painted Tiller:



I like it but I'm bothered by the background and annoyed that I listened to the instructor. The floor was a vibrant brown but he told me to change it to that mottled olive green, which would supposedly contrast better with Tiller. But I liked the brown with Tiller because it looks like MY dog laying on MY floor. Tiller blends into our house, and I should be able to paint him like that if I want to.

Damn I should drop this class. It really sucks.