Hit the ground running

When I came home from the workshop last month it felt like I had pulled apart a steel trap just enough to get some relief and then let it snap back in place. This time it felt like the trap broke, and I came home feeling pretty good. The man is making half-hearted efforts toward separation to show that he's listening, but he hasn't actually gone anywhere. I don't care anymore. (I will NEVER tell you what I do.) The only person you can control is yourself, and I have things to get done:

* Atelier class every Monday until Christmas

* two THREE job interviews in the next two weeks (!!)

* Quiet internal freak-out about the possibility of actually getting a job offer and having to move out

* Dropping off a painting for a juried gallery show

* Downsizing my stuff

* Presenting my Scotland art project to the grant committee - and about a hundred spectators at a formal banquet, yikes

It's enough to keep me busy for a while.

For my atelier class, we are working on tromp l'oeil (a painting that gives the illusion of a real object popping off your wall). I went with a Newfoundland trigger mitten, some dried leaves from Bowring Park, and a playing card of maritime folklore figures. I nailed some boards together to look like the siding of the brightly painted jellybean houses for the background.

This week's homework was to do a value study. I know how to do value studies, but maybe not with something that has a pattern made up of a MILLION TINY KNITTED STITCHES. It's supposed to be loosely blocked in with broad blotches of value - how do you even do that with a knitted pattern?! I tried it in brown, got mad, painted over it it in grey, got mad again, and started over today. I have 3 days to get this thing done correctly. 

NOPE

made two in case I mess one up again

It's going great so far.

I'll keep at it. And level up my skills. And take notes on how to conduct a class. And then break into the Canadian art scene and build an ART EMPIRE. 

In Corner Brook. 

Painting mittens.