After a crit with Dan, I had another with Stewart at 3. Since our last crit, I'd installed tables and gone though one and a half cycles of paintings, maybe two. The studio reset itself just before Thanksgiving break, with I greatly enjoyed as I became free of some paint pit paintings. I pulled out a couple success paintings from those cycles, and hung out in a studio with a big fabric work-in-progress tacked to the big wall. Stewart said he had turned around after seeing the big colorful wall, as he thought he was in the wrong studio. No, I assured him, this is the spot. He said that the big painting (the 'feelie' piece tacked up to a bedsheets with other colored fabrics tacked and sewn in, like a big fabric collage in infancy) was unlike my paintings. He said that it celebrates color, whereas my paintings aren't about color. I'd kind of thought my paintings were about color enough. . Somewhat. Like, with my colorblindenss I thought the color experimentation I was doing made them about color, but when this crit came it made sense and I accepted it. So not only was Ken Kewley's thing good and welcome, but it opened collage, which might have opened color and shapes again to me- an aspect of paintings I have been very skeptical of. When it's said that my work celebrates color and shapes, I think that person is stupid- potentially. I mean, yeah, it's colors and shapes, let's move on though because I'm trying to communicate here.
Stewart asked if I still had that little book. It was a book of a Wilfred Owen poem that I'd illustrated and assembled. It was direct collage in a two inch by 3/4inch book, bound with tape and PVA. I did still have it outside in a storage rack. He bought it off me for $20, and I gave him a reproduction that I'd made of it in an edition of eight too.
I have one crit with each of my critics left to go this semester. I've done somewhat of a successful arc with each of them, and I think I've done good. Where to go from here?
For Jessica, I'm going to make some beautiful illustrations for a comic book project that I've been doing with my friends. Our next critique is on December 3rd, and by that time I'll have a cover and two pages of interiors done to show her. Last week I sat in on one of her classes, in an emergency illustration refresher, so I could ensure my submissions will be of high quality. I've got two interior pages, but I am not sure if the story is strong enough yet to justify the time and labor etc that I've yet to put in. Yikes.
For Didier, my assignment is to give my paintings a fair try- to actually go for it in terms of scale and energies etc, and not just 'scale up' but to go for it.
And for Stuart, it is to make make make, and be engaged. For Stuart it's going to be a lot of starts, and round the clock vigilance. No sleep, mindfulness, bycatch.
