Thanks, and More Art...

First off, thanks to all of you for the sweet comments for the last post! Never has a 5 word post avec exclamation point elicited such a major response. You are all so kind, and NOSY! :-)

I'm not sure if I'm ready (or him either) for the public unveiling yet, but I'll keep ya posted. It's still very much a work-in-progress. One little detail: he's also a (very talented) painter. It's nice that we have that in common.

Onto my latest painting/critique disaster... So for our next assignment we had to do a mixed media painting that was about the genre of decoration, which is something happening a lot in contemporary art these days. I just went on my merry way with an idea that incorporated a decorative element but was not solely about that. So I got kind of dissed in the critique again, while some butt-ugly paintings that were indeed solely decorative got praised! Do I sound bitter?

This painting is not finished, because the collage elements in the painting took hella-long to put together.

It's called "Frozen Entree Face"

Some of the other students in the class liked it, but the instructor did not seem to be that into it. He critiques paintings based on whether or not the piece fulfills the assignment, rather than on the merits of the painting itself, and he also seems to have his favorites in the class, who I am referring to as his Acolytes.

The irony is: this instructor is incredibly knowledgable. I think I can learn a lot from him. I'm just not getting the little ego strokes that I so desire, which sucks.

Newz

I have a new beau. !

Grrrr....

I'm smarting a bit over this painting critique this afternoon that didn't exactly go MY WAY. The culture/mix of personalities in this class with this new instructor is one that I'm having trouble adapting to. BUT: I'm not going to vent all over the internets about it.

Anyway, here are two paintings, and a photo of me as a very young art student (taken by myself in the mirror; I've always been a navel-gazer, of course! ) that served as the inspiration for them.

I like them. So There!

At top, a three-session painting; below, a single session painting. The assignment was to do a single panel expressionist painting, meaning a painting that evokes a strong emotional response in the viewer. Truthfully, I just painted what I wanted to, and did not care too much if it answered the assignment or not. So I got burned somewhat in the critique for that.

Arrgh, I said I wasn't going to vent!!!!!!!!