Painting class #9...part one

Maybe when other people take classes, they just take them, do the work continue their lives. I guess I'm different. I take these classes so seriously!! I feel like I have to. I'm not a kid, this is what I want to do. This is what I should have done when I went to college the first time- I can't even imagine living on campus with 100% of my time devoted to my classes. I had no idea what i was throwing away.

That was music, though...and I had some other things going on with my brain (and, lets be honest, I was very immature).

I appreciate my classes so much and since I threw away my last educational experience, I am trying to put everything I've got into this.

I keep saying- "I need this info NOW." It's true- I mean to apply what I learn right now. Even today as I'm trying to develop a curriculm of my own for teaching lessons up here on the Divide (which is the community where I live). I am using everything I learn RIGHT NOW. Which makes me wonder how much effort I should put in to get an actual degree. I wont rush to finish off my general ed, at least.

We need money. Matts job has excellent benefits, but the salary leaves us close to empty each month. We were able to go to Disneyland thanks to my selling some paintings and Matt selling off some pricey items we don't use anymore. But, we still need a car. Two cars, actually. I've got to get a job.

The only job I want is to teach drawing and painting, and I think there might be a good chance it could work. We have an enormous amount of homeschoolers up here who need instruction. We also have schools with no more actual art classes at the elementary level. I'd love to work one on one with kids.

I've been writing up lessons...I hope I know what I'm doing!

Ok, anyway....back to class. I am LOVING this new project. Although, I take it all so serious I think my classmates think I'm weird. They're right- I guess I am weird. Ask anyone who knows me!

The project is to choose from a list of titles, and then represent that title in a non-representational painting. (does that make sense?) (representational=recognizable objects and form, non-representational=completely abstract)

My entire life has been a series of forced artistic attempts. I think. Everything I do pushes to hard on the viewer- it's my nature to overexpose the everyone around me to my own inner workings. The same is true in my paintings. I come right out and say "this one is about the objectification of women"...in the most obvious and unsuccessful way. I want to communicate in a way that allows more interpretation, more contemplation. No more visual sluttiness.

Here's some of my sketches and paint-sketches. I'm trying to be more loose with the brush. I want more movement. I can't move away from the rainbow-look, though. We are learning a lot about color theory and harmonies and such...I have a hard time picking a simple triad or tetrad---for me, if there's red, there must be green. But also yellow..and so...purple, blue....and a stitch of orange. And...there we go- every color makes it's way in eventually. I can't help it. Making I'll lose this, too...eventually? I'm not ready for that, yet.




This is my favorite of the pile...


Once I get painting, I'll let you in on the title.