Week Eight October 26, 2007

Week Eight at the Art Centre.

Monday again and this one found me continuing to hack away at the linoleum - slow work. Slash and gouge and hope not to slip either on the lino or to get a finger in the way. Some are printing already – 15 prints due in total. A few are still finishing up their pattern assignments. Glad I’m farther along than that.

This Tuesday we brought in a dry brush painting we did at home and some of us also handed in the last homework assigned (the teacher was away on the day it was due). Another ducky arrangement – this time more than half of the class spent on getting proportions correct. By the time I started to paint (in black tempera) it was also time to hear what painting supplies we’d be expected to bring in for the next class. A lot of emphasis was put on how toxic both acrylics and oil paints are. So damned if you do and damned if you don’t kind of thing. I’m not crazy about either and much prefer gouache and water colours but we’re not studying that. I was disappointed to have to turn in an unfinished painting. After class I conducted a tour of the paint shelves at Midoco art supplies looking mostly at the array of acrylics. The teacher seems to loathe that nearby art supply shop so I intend to compare prices with the sacred stores often referred to – I’ll see what others pay for their supplies. I think that with the healthy 15% discount and the lack of having to travel by transit and take that travel time, it’s more efficient and practical to shop in the neighbourhood. Again, not feeling up to returning to school for studio time so I’m lagging farther behind.

Wednesday was the day off but a busy one for me traveling to Markham campus to deliver a one and a half hour training seminar on Power Point to aviation faculty from around the metropolitan area. About 20 participants and all really got into the hands-on activities after being introduced to the essentials.

Thursday good old art history was a bit different. We had a supply teacher who amazingly had taught art history and really seemed to know her stuff. We followed along in the art textbook as she reviewed both Egypt and Greece in art. Our regular teacher had left plenty for us to do and she got us through most of it including an interesting look art inside and outside. My threesome group thought of the very same examples as the ones she talked about later – Picasso’s “Guernica” and Mondrian’s minimalist works.

Sculpting class in the afternoon was again taken up with a presentation and demonstrations for things I’ll forget how to do by the time I get there. It’s quite demoralizing to know that you can’t get the work done in class time where we are encouraged to ask for feedback. I have to find a way to attend studio hours when the word is, if you go don’t ask questions. Arggghhhhh.

Friday we brought all of our drawings to date. I’d already sorted mine into the various categories: gesture – quick ones 5 to a page, blind contour, continuous line, 15-20 minute pose, 1 hour pose, some ink, some pencil or conte. We put the “good ones” in a folder to hand in for marking. The rest went into our own folder and into a drawer so we don’t have to lug them around or stuff them into our lockers. The rest of the class was an exercise in extreme frustration for me – a math challenged individual. We had, as our final assignment in line drawing to recreate an “old master” drawing. We got to choose from an assortment of these.

I chose a burly back of a man seated. Then I tried to figure out how to convert the size of the grid on the drawing to the grid on my cartridge paper. The idea of the grid is to help with getting the proportions correct – an area in which I need all the help I can get. It took me until the end of the period and help from the teacher to finally get a grid done on my paper. We have until next Tuesday morning to complete it. Good luck to me. I rush from class to the conference at the University where I’ll be until Sunday afternoon with little chance to work on the drawing until next Monday after class and before going back to the University for the Class I teach there.

I’ll buy my art supplies on Sunday at Midoco. And surprise, I’ve decided to go with oils – I think it is the more serious medium and surely it will help me learn a little patience as I wait for it to dry. Oh, yes, and when will I find time to work on the model for the medal? And read all of the postings from my online class. And do more of the art history assignments? And sleep? O Well. Next week should be a bit easier time-wise. I still have perfect attendance.