i will not cry over closed doors
there are enough warm welcomes
embraces that surround me
in a halo of light
from these
my already friends
who are my belonging
and who make their home
in the deepest recesses
of my heart
Open door, open heart November 29, 2008
Level 1 Week 11 and 12 November 28, 2008
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays (Figure drawing)
We continue to start classes with 1 minute gesture warmups and 5 minute block-ins. We have started 20-40 minutes on poses with the goal of drawing proportions and shapes more accurately, and separating the light values into 3 tones.
Wednesdays (Still life)
Fridays (Still Life)
1 hour per object
This morning’s snow November 21, 2008
This dark lasts weeks and weeks,
the sun beds earlier, wakes later
and so, I wish, could I –
bury myself beneath my log-cabin quilt,
nest in a duvet of down.
But alarm clock “dee dee dee deets”,
parakeets chatter me from sleep,
I pull on warm clothes, shoes,
key the door locked tight and
head the two miles northwest,
off to school.
I find myself chasing my vapored breath,
a flurry of snow kissing soft my flushing cheeks
and I ask the spirit of Poe to possess me
in this haze of cold and gray.
Mastery November 19, 2008
Our level 1 class is reading the book Mastery by George Leonard. Many of us are hitting plateaus, feeling the frustration of trying to master our level of the craft, realizing that the breakthroughs are few and far between. Much of the time is spent just plodding along, doing the work, training but seeing little external leaps. However, in the steady work of the plateaus, something is happening. This book is a good reminder. Below are some excerpts I especially liked.
“To take the master’s journey, you have to practice diligently, striving to hone you skills, to attain new levels of competence. But while doing so – and this is the inexorable fact of the journey – you also have to be willing to spend most of your time on a plateau, to keep practicing even when you seem to be getting nowhere.”
“The real juice of life, whether it be sweet or bitter, is to be found not nearly so much in the products of our efforts as in the process of living itself, in how it feels to be alive. Goals and contingencies are important. But they exist in the future and the past, beyond the pale of the sensory realm. Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present. You can see it, hear it, smell it, feel it. To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenely to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them. To love the plateau is to love what is most essential and enduring in your life.”
“Love of your work, willingness to stay with it even in the absence of extrinsic reward, is good food and good drink.”
“What is mastery? At the heart of it, mastery is practice. Mastery is staying on the path.”
“The essence of boredom is to be found in the obsessive search for novelty. Satisfaction lies in mindful repetition, the discovery of endless richness in subtle variations on familiar themes.”
Fall November 16, 2008
Take a little time,
just take some time.
Talk to me,
take a little walk with me.
Let’s kick up some leaves, red and gold,
piles and piles alongside the road.
If it rains, hold my black umbrella for us both.
We’ll walk arm in arm avoiding puddles.
It’s so blustery, drippy with fall wet, and cold.
So take some time,
take just a little.
Talk to me,
take a little walk with me.
Wrap your scarf around you tight.
I’ll wear the handknit one my mother made and
houndstooth cap, maroon and beige.
If it’s too cold, we’ll huddle as we hobble
down the cobblestone streets.
When we get home we’ll cuddle on the couch,
warm our soggy selves with cocoa and spiced tea.
You’ll be so happy to have spent some time,
just a little,
with me.
jane and edward November 9, 2008
I am rabbit, willow,
waning moon fading slowly into fullness.
I am fluttering lashes soft against the cheek,
feathered pillow, lullaby enticing sleep.
You are raven, oak,
ink in indigo sky.
You are weathered stone,
magician’s cloak, twinkling eye.
I am dragon’s blood and bone,
You are heart and home.
Level 1 Week 9 and 10 November 4, 2008
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays (Figure drawing)
Wednesdays (Still Life)
Fridays (Still Life)
Level 1 Week 7 and 8 November 4, 2008
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays (Figure drawing)
The block-ins started making more sense to me week 7 after Steve described it as massing in to see volume, not unlike a sculptor piling clay onto an armature before carving out the figure.
10 and 20 minute poses with block-ins/wipe-outs
Wednesdays (Still life)
6 tones of value with charcoal
Fridays (Still life)
Graphite drawings of still life set ups, Bargue style
