Weeks I, II and III: Artwork

Once again, time flies. We're nearing the end of week five already. Just two weeks left! (And so much I haven't said.)

There's beginning to be a sense of urgency now, the feeling that we need to crank up the pressure and make as much work as we can in these last two weeks. This thought is both energizing and exhausting. We've already been working hard. And lately there's been so much to do that I've started cutting corners on the self-care essentials like sleep and exercise ... and even showering, to some degree. Not so good, I know. (It was an accident with the showering thing, though. I just ... forgot for a few days that I hadn't taken a shower recently.) 

It's always been a struggle for me to accept the fact that I can't do everything I want to do, and Chautauqua is like a red-alert danger zone for people like me who like everything. It really can get stressful. Seriously. 

Which is dumb, I know. Because then I miss out enjoying what I can do. And there really is a lot I am doing. It's great. 

Here's yesterday's (Wednesday's) schedule: 9 am drawing from slides with Stanley. Yes, for those of you who have been wondering, Stanley is here -- this is his second week. It is wonderful getting to know him, having heard about him for so long. And for those of you who wonder what "drawing from slides" is ... we all get together and study a "master" artwork by drawing in our sketchbooks from the chosen image (using an overhead projector -- hence, the slides). It sounds like it could be boring, but it's actually fairly intense and hilarious, especially with Stanley. He makes everything exciting. Last week was Bonnard. We had a huge debate about whether the mirror in that particular painting was resting on the chair or behind it, and whether the model was looking in the mirror or around it. Good times. I love Bonnard! This week was Poussin. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a good study, too. I guess just about any artwork is a great study, as long as you give yourself enough time with it. Having Stanley to get excited with you always helps, too. 

As much fun as drawing from slides can be, it is also exhausting work, so I was more than ready for lunch afterwards. During lunch I also had a crit with Charles Spurrier, our visiting artist for the next couple of weeks. It was a little confusing to decipher what he was saying (he has a sort of mysterious way of talking), but a good crit. He mostly talked about how I should make sure that every color (and in general, every decision) in my painting needs to reference another; that we paint the relationships between objects, not the objects themselves (that's my paraphrase, so I may have got it skewed but I think that's the general idea). It was a good discussion, and helpful, I think.

Right after lunch comes drawing. We actually had independent studio time this week, so I made a monoprint. Then dinner, then more printmaking, and at 9:00pm, printmaking crits. It was our first group printmaking crits (they were supposed to be last week but we had to reschedule). Crits went well, but we didn't finish till midnight, and then I did some cleaning up in the studio so I didn't go to bed until 1:00am. 

Today we had to meet up at 8:00 for an all-day field trip to Buffalo. 

That's my life right now. 

Busy.

Here are some photos of work from the first three weeks (see captions for more info). I'll put up more recent stuff this weekend. Till then, ciao. I'm going to try to go to bed early for once.

Project for Seminar Class, Week 1

Project for Seminar Class, detail

After some frustration that first 2 weeks, I had a crit with Joseph Ryan in which he encouraged me to just get out and paint four paintings, 2-3 hours each. (I wasn't in the landscape class at this point, but I switched after this weekend, so I had the last week of Ying Li's class.) It was definitely a good experience for me.

Weekend Painting Series, No. 1, Week 2/3

Weekend Painting Series, No. 2 

Weekend Painting Series, No. 3

Weekend Painting Series, No. 4

Weekend Painting Series, No. 5

The source of my frustration for weeks 1 and 2: a three-color plate aquatint from the "Holy Land" sketches. It was good to learn a new process and has given me some ideas for future work, but ... it was hard. I had really fought it out on this one, and kind of freaked out for a little while about the fact that I was putting a lot of time into only one image, while many of my fellow students were making three times as much work (and better work, too). It was frustrating. But it did get better.

Palestine at the Beach, Proof 1, (Week 2)

Palestine at the Beach, Proof 2, (Week 2)

Palestine at the Beach, Color Proof No. 3 (Week 3/4)

Week 2, Part I: Audrey Ushenko

This week has been full of a lot of ups and downs. I find that I'm learning as much about myself as I am about "art."

Hmm ... how do I explain?

Rooftops by Audrey Ushenko, 1993

Things started off ... "up." Every Tuesday and Friday evening, one of the art faculty gives a lecture. This past Tuesday, it was Audrey's turn. Audrey Ushenko is a painter and art historian; she taught the first rotation of the drawing class these past two weeks. Immediately upon meeting her, the first thing you'll notice is her hair. It is bright orange. Not unheard of, except for the fact that she is in her mid to late sixties. (It is bright, bright orange.) And there is no doubt about it, Audrey's personality definitely matches the vivacity of her hair.

One of the first days we were here, we had to take a group photo with these black art-school t-shirts. The first pose was supposed to be the nice, formal pose, so we all lined up in rows on one of the picnic tables. It quickly became apparent that there was not going to be very much room left for the last few people, one of whom was Audrey. So she decided to just lay down flat on the grass in front of us all, waving her hand high at the camera, in the way of people's faces. It was great.

In our drawing classes, Audrey was always making quirky, hilarious comments underlined with an invaluable tidbit of wisdom. Sometimes during breaks a couple of us students would ask her a question which turned into a long story that went way past break time's end. Not so good, except that everything she says is so interesting. Or funny. On our last day of class, the model was late, so Audrey started modeling for us herself ... not your typical contrapposto, but instead postures that were ... sultry and seductive. (Remember, this lady is in her sixties.) While in the middle of this, the administrative assistant came in to ask her a question; she exclaimed over her shoulder, "Can't you wait, I am in the middle of a pose, and you are messing up my count!"

From a drawing class with Audrey (She taught from an "academic" perspective and we focused a lot on the figure)

Anyway, the lecture: it was so exciting -- liberating, in fact. Audrey talked about how, when she was a young artist, there used to be one dominant voice ruling the art world, with clearly defined boundaries and labels for specific artist "styles." Throughout the course of her lifetime, however, she saw the world of art splinter into a myriad of different groups vying for attention. Audrey paralleled this observation with the story of her own artwork's evolution. She showed slides of her work from different periods of her life, and explained how she experimented with different modes of representation, trying to figure out what was going to be "it."

She also shared a good story, about being commissioned to paint separate portraits of a wife and husband couple who were very generous donors to a local museum. Audrey had already done the wife's portrait at an earlier date; it was a quick oil sketch that captured the personality of the woman well. The husband, however, had since died and she was going to have to paint him from memory. That is no small task. She explained that her portraits done from memory tend to be more rigid and structured, capturing less of the life of the person. With this man's portrait she did her best, but was certain it wouldn't be nearly as energetic or engaging as his wife's.

Reluctantly, Audrey brought the painting to show the wife when it was finished. She braced herself for the woman's response. But when the woman looked at the portrait of her husband, she smiled and said softly, "Well, hello there."

That, said Audrey, was a moment when she knew what she wanted to her artwork to be about. She added, "And of course, I also want to be famous on an intergalactic level." (That's right. She really did say intergalactic. And everyone lost it, laughing hard, right about then.)

Her closing statements tied in really well with this story about the portrait. The art world no longer has one dominant voice determining what is right or good; instead, there are many different smaller movements, each with their own specific audience. We are free to make the art that we want to make. And someone will be paying attention.

I have met few people as youthful and animated as Audrey. She is like the the dash of salt that brings out the flavor in a good meal. It was great to have her as a teacher during the first two weeks, and I think I learned as much from her attitude as I did from her drawing instruction. Hopefully, when I am in my sixties I will have at least a little of the same energy, for both my life and my work.

Week 1 Recap

"The Quad" (our studios and class space)

Wow. This is Day 11 already. Now having been here a week, I've begun to settle into the rhythm of this new place, but wow ... it is going fast. I have a feeling I will go to sleep tonight, wake up tomorrow and find that it is suddenly our last day here, time to pack up and head home. But, before I get ahead of myself, here's the outline of the last nine days: 

• Sun, Day 2: Studio lottery, gallery shows, dorm meeting. 

My studio

• Mon, Day 3: Drawing Marathon Part I

Drawing from Drawing Marathon with Ying Li

•  Drawing Marathon with Don Kimes, Ying Li (landscape painting), Sam Van Aken (sculpture), Tom Raneses (printmaking).

• Tues, Day 4: Drawing Marathon Part II

• Drawing Marathon with Audrey Ushenko, Frederick Bartolovic (ceramics), Polly Martin (ceramics), Joseph Ryan (instructor for Chautauquans). Signed up for classes. Felt really torn about that (more to come). Evening Lecture: Showing of "The Madness of Art"

• Wed, Day 5: First Day of Classes. 

Figure Drawing with Audrey

• For me, Seminar in the morning (a critique class) and Drawing in the afternoon. During out seminar class we went to see the shows in the galleries, and Don shared a lot of interesting stories and insight about the abstract expressionists (one of the shows is a collection of abstract art from the 1950s/60). We were also assigned to bring a completed work for Friday. Started freaking out about this ... 
• Drawing in the afternoon with Audrey.
• oh, and we also had a picnic with our "adoption parents."

• Thur, Day 6: Second Day of Classes. 
• Open time in the morning. I attempted to paint outside here in the quad. It's been three years since I've painted. Too long. I hope to get into it more. Printmaking was in the afternoon. I got pretty excited. Tom (the professor) is laid back and flexible, but also eager to get us going and bring on the challenges. I think I looking forward to working with him. 
• One of the shows here is a print exhibition; it's a really great show -- and diverse. There's a work by Paula Schehr, a piece by Alex Katz, a couple woodcuts by an artist named Charlie Hewitt who spoke at the film screening on Tuesday (apparently he started print shop here at Chautauqua), and some interesting etchings by someone named Karla Hackenmiller (among other works). I think the etchings by Hackenmiller were my favorite, but I don't know anything about her, so I'll have to look her up. 
• In the show there are also two pieces by Katja Oxman, the professor whom Tom studied under. At first they didn't strike my interest, but after learning more about the process from Tom, I've become intrigued. Both her prints are three-plate aquatints. Each plate is a different color (red, blue, yellow), and when overprinted, the places that overlap become new colors, so your end result is a six-color print. Having seen the intricate details and patterns in Oxman's prints, there's is an instant sense of awe that results. It hurts my brain to think about how she does it. But it looks like my brain will just have to deal, because that's my first project. I had been experimenting with color overlap a lot with my own square cracker prints, so it seems like this could be a natural next step. I guess we'll see ...

• Fri, Day 7
• Seminar Crits
• Drawing
• Dinner with my "official" Chautauquan parents (I have two sets of parents. Having one set is a little weird to begin with, but two is weird and unusual ... but I'll explain more on that later).
• Evening Lecture: Sam Van Raken. It was great!

• Sat, Day 8 



"The Holy Land" Drawing I (6" x 9")



"The Holy Land" Drawing I (6" x 9")

• Most of the day I drew by the lake. The drawing will hopefully be what I used for my 3-plate aquatint print. (Cross your fingers.) I still have no idea how this is going to work, exactly. Have a feeling it will be complicated.
• It turns out the area I've been drawing is an outdoor, 3D model of the "Holy Land." I find this kind of interesting. And funny. I learned some interesting facts while tour groups wound their way around. Every foot is the equivalent to a mile of the actual land. (Is this really true? I wonder.) It's also a favorite place for kids to play. Two five-year old boys started a "quest" from Nazareth to Jerusalem. Mostly this involved jumping around rocks and throwing sticks. It was pretty great.
• Wasn't very happy with the way the first drawing turned out. (It looks a little better online, so don't trust what you see here, it's different in person.) I used some watercolor pencils and misjudged the vibrancies of their colors -- so when I added water to the places I had used the pencil, suddenly EVERYTHING became neon green. It was super annoying.
• I did another quick sketch (Drawing II) midway through Drawing I to try to figure out the planes and color space. I think it's better. Maybe even better than the one I did the next day.
• Also saw the symphony perform at the amphitheater. It was fabulous.

• Sunday, Day 9



"The Holy Land" Drawing III (6" x 9")

• More drawing out by the lake, swarmed by Hebrew School children. They were fascinated by what I was doing. Asked lots of questions and gave me lots of compliments. Super cute and funny. Unfortunately, they were so fascinated that I eventually gave up working. It was probably time to go anyway, though.

• Monday, Day 10: Happy Fourth.



Figure Drawing From Class: Ink, Charcoal & Pencil

• Seminar: people showed slides of recent work. 
• Drawing: More figure drawing with Audrey. Used ink and charcoal. I liked it.
• Dinner with "unofficial" Chautauqua parents. It was a good time. They also had over one of their friends, Eva, an older Jewish woman who is very interesting ... and very opinionated. But very warm and kind, like Tom and Linda, who also have a boat, it turns out. So I will learn to sail! 

Day 1

I have arrived at Chautauqua. This place is a strange mix of things ... and people. Imagine this: Macinac Island meets the Music Man meets ... summer camp. There are tiny little ballerina girls here, lots of white-haired rich folk (the "Chautauquans"), opera students (some of whom are flamboyantly loud), music students (some of whom care a little too much about their clothes), theater students and us, the artists.

Not to much time to describe everything, so here's the quick rundown of the rest of the day: Dad and I drove up. Nervous. Nervous and excited. Also tired (stayed up till 3 packing). Registered. Moved in. Ate. Big Lots, shopping. Unpacked. Met Mara, my roommate from New Hampshire. We talked for awhile about art, showing each other the books we had brought. She: Jane Freilicher, Joan Mitchell, and some others. I: Rembrandt prints, Egon Schiele landscapes, some others. It was exciting to meet and share our stories.

Dad and I walked around. Caught some of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: "Sunrise, Sunset" & "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." They wore weird pink robes, but the music was beautiful ... ethereal even. I closed my eyes and just listened for awhile. It was nice. Afterwards we ate. Good time with Dad. Came back. Met roommates next door: Anica and Justine. (So far, all painters.)

And that's a wrap.