Dancing in the Shadow of Aspens (2014)
rocks), Diego Rivera, and Andy Goldsworthy. (In my
youth, Titian, Constable, Turner and Franz Marc led
the list then William Baily and Jim Dine kicked in
during my college years). So I looked at some of
Wyeth‟s work and then tortured myself trying to
dream up images. I was wintering in Arizona, but not
really used to the landscape, and the desert was
difficult to connect with, having lived almost my
entire life amongst large trees that arched over
country roads. My heart was not in the desert, so
choosing a subject was difficult for me, much less the
further complication of not having a visual voice, i.e.
my style.
Anyway, I painted a couple of medium-large
pieces which I probably changed each three times.
Nothing set right. I needed something other than
painting just as I saw it. I felt that was something I did
years ago and I was no longer attracted to it. Had I
never gone to college, but rather stayed self-taught, I
probably would now be able to make beautiful
classical pieces; but I don‟t have that same kind of
patience or interest anymore. Where I could spend a
100-plus hours on a drawing or painting, and where I
once set myself to learn about values, I now want to
play with color. I want to explore and learn by doing.
I was never good at learning by following prescribed
formulas. My brain/gut does not work that way,
perhaps it‟s an impatience to learn at my own pace. I
never wanted to go to college, having disliked being
prescribed things by teachers. I was/am what they
refer to as a „hands on‟ person. But the scholarship
took me there. Once, when I applied for a job
teaching high school, one of the schools asked „what
does your room look like at the end of the day‟ (It
was a question fielded by the janitor). My response
was „organized chaos‟ because I will set my students
to task based on what I think „they, individually‟
need, so usually, instead of a single prescribed lesson
(unless totally specific skill, like perspective or
portraiture – the latter of which I would give a choice