I’m off to school tonight – week two of my Composition and Form class at Emily Carr. I was worried it would be too much of a “beginner” class & I might feel self-conscious about introducing myself as a full time artist, but since it’s one of the required classes for me to complete my certificate program, I’ve put it off long enough!

I’m only one class in, but based on the course outline & the homework, I’m going to enjoy it. The teacher is fantastic & the other students are all really friendly. Plus it just feels good to go back to the basics.

A lot of what makes art successful is instinctive. Even absolute beginners without any previous art training know when one picture looks better than another one, regardless of whether or not they can pinpoint the exact reasons why. Our first class had us looking at famous paintings & paying attention to how each one followed the rules of composition, drawing attention to the most important part of the image by using the lightest lights, the darkest darks, lots of negative space, perspective lines & so on. That may sound like a bunch of gobbledygook, but once it’s pointed out to you, it’s impossible NOT to notice.

One of the funniest examples was looking at a slide of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus:

Clearly the woman in the middle of the image is the focal point of the painting. The class is asked to shout out how we know this – what techniques has Botticelli employed to make her the most important part of the painting, the place your eye returns to over & over again? Here’s a list:

• Value – she’s lighter than everything else
• Line – there are several lines pointing towards her (gestures in the arms, the gust of breath being blown towards her by the zephyr)
• Virtual Lines – all eyes are directed at her
• Negative space surrounding her
• Position – smack dab in the center
• the shell serves as a platform, contrasting strongly against the water

Pretty good for our first class, right? We only missed one thing, but it was a pretty major one. I couldn’t help burst out laughing when the teacher said it – she’s NAKED!

Our all female class was completely oblivious. Apparently this is not something often missed when there are males in the classroom. It never even occurred to me!

It’s summer! Of COURSE I would sign up for 2 classes plus host an art show plus take on a new wholesale client plus sign up for a whack of markets plus try to plan some holiday time so I can actually see my family! Yes, I have once again bitten off more than I can chew and am a busy little bee running around trying to keep my TO DO list from piling so high that I get buried right underneath it! Phew!

I had such a fantastic time at my art show on the weekend that it deserves its own post (with plenty of photos), but that will have to wait for another time because wouldn’t you know it – I’m dashing out the door to my art class. Last night they had me attempting to build a sculpture that represented a “stair experience” plus the words “liminial” and “vortex”. Oh, did I mention my only tools were cardboard, string & masking tape? Yeah. Not exactly taking that beauty home for display in the grand foyer! haha

Tonight we’ll be discussing the roots of modernism, which apparently involves a whole lot of French history. It’s an interesting class, but to say my knowledge of the French Revolution is rusty is putting it mildly. Au revoir!

It’s a rainy Sunday afternoon & I’m settling in with a cup of coffee & my homework. Yup, kgb is back in school! I signed up for 2 summer classes at Emily Carr University, both required courses if I’m ever to get my certificate in Fine Art Techniques. I’ve taken quite a few classes there already, but I tend to pick painting classes and things I’m really excited about rather than the slightly…less interesting, say, core classes required for me to get that certificate.

The class I started last week, Issues in Contemporary Art, is completely hands-off, which I actually am excited about. I haven’t taken a book-learnin’ class in probably 10 years. I’ve done lots of painting and drawing courses, workshops etc., but where I just have to read? And write assignments? And possibly do a presentation IN FRONT OF THE CLASS? Exciting and nervous and makes me want to throw up a little bit in my mouth.

I am sooo not a public speaker. Even introducing myself as we go around the room makes my face and chest flush red. But I’m excited for the challenge and I’m thrilled that I will have homework that requires going to galleries and looking at art. How rad is that?? If I had the money I would absolutely go to university and get an art history degree. Or maybe marine biology so I could go out on dive expeditions to do scientific research. Or sociology, just ’cause I’ve always been interested in people and society and change.

Clearly I enjoy school. It would’ve been nice to have grown up in a wealthy family where I could take classes just because knowledge itself has value. I feel like that’s a luxury these days. Most people take the minimum amount of education they need to get hired in a specific field. How many times have you heard philosophy or liberal arts degrees referred to as “useless”?

I get it, I really do. We all need to put a roof over our heads and put food on the table, so coming out of college with whopping student loans makes no sense unless you’re going to be qualified for a well-paying job. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

This week my homework involves reading an excerpt from Ways of Seeing based on the BBC television series with John Berger. So far, so good. I loathe artspeak – that pretentious babble that the art community insists upon to make itself sound fabulously snobby and intelligent – so I was expecting to be a little irritated by this class. I think artspeak alienates a broader audience who would enjoy art a lot more if they didn’t feel stupid as they try to decipher self-important artist statements. There’s also a strong sense of bullshit, especially with abstract art. The average joe looks at a simple color block painting and thinks, “My kid could do that.” Trying to explain why it’s art (or why it’s good) with unintelligible jargon doesn’t help at all. It sounds like bullshit and I’m sure it feels like the artist is just trying to pull one over on a gullible buyer.

Barnett Newman – Voice of Fire

Why not explain in simple language that the reason the giant canvas painted with simple stripes isn’t as simple as your kid slapping paint on a roller because the layers of color were added so carefully and chosen just right so as to make the whole composition practically vibrate? That there are many layers of glaze that traps the light to make it reflect and bounce in just such a way that it gives the color incredible depth? That standing in front of it encourages people to *keep* standing in front of it, falling into it, meditating on the color? Explained like that I’m guessing you’re going to have a whole lot more non-art lovers remark with (at least), “Huh. I guess that is kind of cool.”

Guido Molinari - Sérielle bi-bleu

For the record, I should note that there is plenty of what I would consider “bad” art out there. Like music or film, art is highly subjective. And that’s fine. In the example above, I’m not trying to say that Joe should now like the abstract painting because he understands why art critics like it, but at least he should be given the chance to understand WHY art critics think the work is good.

Unfortunately, once the price tag associated with the work is taken into consideration, attempts at any kind of critical understanding stop in their tracks. A huge segment of people will never agree that a painting is worth $1.76 million dollars, but art pricing is a whole ‘nother topic that I’m going to back away from lest I never get my homework finished!

I’m going to be trying something new this weekend & selling my work at an art show hosted by a trendy children’s shop in Surrey, BC. This should be quite a different crowd than the craft shows I’ve done in the past & it’ll be interesting to see how my work is received. I don’t paint specifically for children in mind, though I am definitely influenced by the great storybooks I grew up reading. I’m in a weird sort of gray (pink?)  area between cute, but not quite the super child-friendly cute that kids are used to seeing. Should be a fun experiment anyway!

If you’re a local, here are all the details:

An eclectic mix of modern kids artworks will be featured during this fun day. Meet and mingle with select local artisans – this is an opportunity for you to purchase hand-made high quality unique items for your little loved ones playrooms, bedrooms or jewelry boxes.

Come and see the great works with children in mind from local artists:

The last couple of weeks have been a complete whirlwind of busy-ness for me & the next two promise more of the same. So instead of a full, useful blog post that makes sense, we’re doing a quickie roundup:

Group Show

I have to finish up two more paintings for my group show next month at Raw Canvas Gallery here in Vancouver, plus I’ve been swamped with trying to get the word out about the show, like sending press releases, setting up a Facebook group & whatnot. I have one sort of finished, but I want to add a few more layers to give it more murky depth & I’m thinking about completely re-doing the girl’s hair. It’s bugging me.

Etsy Sales

The Etsy groups I belong to have both decided to do big promo sales at the same time with a big giveaway from the Etsy Canada Team and a sidewalk sale from my Etsy Twitter Team (more details to come).

Social Life

My art group meetings, this incredibly basic & dull parenting course we signed up for which has so far taught me nothing except that I’m already an exceedingly good parent (*snort*), my nephew’s birthday…why does it all hit at the same time? Even the fun stuff! The mister got tickets for the live re-broadcast of This American Life on Monday as a mother’s day gift for me. It was amazing. It was so cool to see how they cue up the quotes, add the music, Ira narrates…not what I pictured at all. Dan Savage’s story was a particular standout since it left both me & the mister weeping in our seats.

Of course we also had to see the new Star Trek on opening night. We took the boy & we all loved it across the board. Sylar as Spock? PERFECT. And surprisingly hot. Also surprising? It was really funny. Laugh out loud funny. Honestly, even if you’re not a Trekker, go see it. It’s a solid movie even without any back story or character history.

I did have to laugh at the whole ohhhhh! They replaced the original cast with young, sexy newcomers!!! What will Hollywood think of next? But…yeah. That’s Hollywood. Next up on our summer blockbuster roster? Transformers 2! I loved the first one so much I was catching flies the whole movie, my jaw wide open watching the shiny chrome twist & transform. So. Freaking. Cool. Hollywood movies are rarely better than my imagination, especially as a child, but Transformers completely blew my 9 year old mind out of the water.