My Aquamarine Phase

Hello! So I am going to a later drawing class today (1-4, 6-9), and it occurred to me that I should probably be documenting all the experiences I’ve been having on this journey. Not only for myself, but possibly as a gift for Willa at the end of this thing. I guess this is as good a place as ever. I should start with a brief recap of whats going on, what the shape of this project is, etc. SO—to begin, I set down a really basic outline for myself which is basically this: May: draw at Spring street studios (life drawing) at least 6 hours a day. I am aiming for 6 days of the week but some of these days are only 4 hour days. the goal: to loosen up my drawing, build up my endurance, and get started! June: I switch over to the famed Art Student’s League for more intense instructed study. The classes are a Life drawing class in the morning, a figurative watercolor class in the afternoon, and an all day oil painting class on Saturdays. the goal: continue the work and incorporate color into my thinking. July: normal classes end and I take a 2 day intensive large scale figure drawing workshop, where I draw the figure life size on huge pieces of paper. I’m monstrously excited for this. After the workshop is done I have a few days left of the program, in which I will probably look back at what I have accomplished, and rework one of my school projects…its Kind of TBA.  and then I’m done and I fly to Egypt, where I intend to keep drawing the world around me! SOOOO So far: ive registered for my classes, and I am in my second week of life drawing. The first week started a little slow due to some miscommunication about logistics and registration and whatnot. But honestly, its OK because it let me more slowly slip into the amount of hours I am committing to…which is a huge amount. I would say the biggest challenge for me has been the sheer amount of time I’m drawing and trying to keep my focus through a marathon day. I would say the “best” drawings seem to happen around the 2 hour mark, and by the 4 hour mark I am pretty much shot and somehow loose all sense of proportion in my drawings. Then I am just pushing through hour 6. But this is exactly the point—only by pushing through the “normal” routine of what I am used  to doing can I hope to evolve. I’ve been using Nicolaides “The Natural Way to Draw” as a sort of guide to get me going. The things he says are really inspiring and the exercises keep me focused and give me something to concentrate on. I started with a lot of contour stuff—this is where I look at the model (and in a slightly creepy way) imagine my hand is touching the outline of their form as I draw on the paper. I’ve managed to slow down my drawing a great deal by doing this, something Lowell (my former drawing teacher at NYU) would be very pleased with. I also find after an hour or so of contour drawing that my eye and my hand are much more in tune with each other. Yesterday, I had a wonderful day. I’ve been drawing so much this week that it has gotten almost to a painful place and impossible to concentrate, and I sort of feel I’ve stopped looking after a while. BUT, after my 4 hour morning class, I had scheduled on my original outline to go on location and draw. So of coarse, I went to my favorite place in NYC: the Met! This was the best thing I could have possibly done. They had an exhibit of 16th C German drawings which was incredibly inspiring…The forms and the line, the way the contours of the body were shaded using simple lines that follow the form of the muscles—-incredible! It made me feel that everything I am doing is worth while. I could see the contour and the gesture, I could feel the hand of the artist as he was making the marks on his paper. THEN, I went to the modern wing. I have a friend who is madly in love with Rothko, and I wanted to check that out. I ended up having a little revelation. My previous feeling about most modern art is this: where is the craft?? how is painting a rectangle as important as the entire lifetime of study it takes to paint the human figure? I’ve really not understood it…but then I was looking at these 3 Rothko paintings they have, and one of them (the earliest), wasn’t a rectangle! And the caption talked about how he had gone through all of these other periods in his work (surrealist, etc) trying to find the perfect expression…and finally he landed on these large planes of color. And it dawned on me—He went through the same lifetime of study and struggled as much as anyone else, he just landed in a different place. If anything, I can respect that even more. Anyway, even though I wasn’t doing as much drawing yesterday (I did a little bit in the atrium drawing statues, but everything I did sucked), I was really glad I went. I think every week I should go look at something new in a museum or even the world (the beach, the park, a cafe, or the subway) because it reminds me what the journey is for. OK, so this is a very long update, sorry about that! But there has been a lot going on! I will try to do bi-weekly or weekly from now on. As I said, I think it is important to document what is going on and how things are progressing. I will try to post also some pictures so you can see what I am talking about.

“you are unique in all time; if you do not use your voice now, the universe will never hear it” -via my mother I have some very exciting news—ive been chosen by the legendary costume designer Willa Kim and the Theater Development Fund for an art scholarship this summer. I will be taking 8 weeks of intense studio art classes at Spring street studios & the art students league, and be mentored by Willa herself! I can’t believe the incredible luck & opportunity I’ve had in my life sometimes. This is a dream come true for me—-literally yesterday I was afraid I might wake up. I got to meet with Willa in her apartment, and she showed me all her amazing art & sketches & even a couple costumes! I felt like a young art student meeting Picasso or something… Seriously in my field this is a big freaking deal. She basically invented the idea of painted body suits for dancers. She is incredibly famous, & spectacularly talented. Anyway, so that’s the news. I will try to post updates of paintings and drawings I do. This is going to be an epic summer—-art art art & then I fly to Cairo in July/august to visit Gizelle! Seriously I’m so thankful for everything in my life right now.

Some days You’re like an anchor on my heart