Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tulips and Windowsill

5x7 acrylic on hardboard panel
collection of Catherine Ziehl

Well, today took an unexpected turn for the worse. As you can see, here I was, painting away in my happy-happy place. And then I decided to go to Raleigh for a figure drawing class thingy, since I love them and they are usually included in my happy-happiness. So I get there, and the artsy gods are smiling upon me- not a crowded class, good lighting, absolutely amazing model. And then Moderator the All-Powerful turns the radio on.
To NPR.
So first its all these women talking about how woooonderful it is that Obama got elected and how ammmmaaaazing it is and how historic-with-a-capital-H. How its empowering-with-a-capital-E and how theyre teaching their kids all about how woooonderful and ammmmaaaazing it is. Inauguration was used, oh, every fifth word or so. Almost as often as Historic.
I know, I know, he isnt white. Get over it. I mean, why are we taking our intelligent, well-spoken, accomplished president-elect and acting like the only thing that matters about him is an accident of birth- namely, the color of his skin? Ugh.
So that goes off, and I try to reclaim my happy-happiness. The model strikes a particularly fun pose, and its beginning to work.
And then the NPR special comes on- guess what, folks, the rest of the evening is going to be elevator-music jazz! The one brand of music that reduces me to tooth-grinding and involuntary full-body seizures... for the first song I was struggling not to claw my eyes out. Instead, I made spitballs out of my sketching paper and stuck them in my ears... to no avail. When I realized I was actually sketching faster in an attempt to make the time go faster so I could leave, I realized I was being even more insane than usual.
Left early. Very very sad. But now I am home, and I am all better, and on Sunday I will go back to my usual class... the silent one :)
#379

5 comments:

  1. I'm with you on this! I listen to NPR all the time, but they do have a fair number of pompous, shallow (and even boring) segments...

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  2. Ah, Kellie, this made me laugh. Thank you for a happy ending to my day. Elevator music is so, well, uhm, ...........irritating. Thanks for stopping by my blog, I love yours and your work. This is a nice acrylic. Do you give pointers? Happy to find you!

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  3. Kellie, I'm sorry your figure drawing session was not it's usual happy-happy, but I have to agree with Jo that it made for a funny story. I said to my husband just last night that I will be happy when the inauguration is over just so I won't have to listen to all the talk about it!

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  4. well, I have to say that writing it all out like that made me laugh as well :) and my usual class on Sunday was delightful, so that was nice.

    Jo- what kind of pointers would you suggest? Every now and then I mention colors, or show some step by steps, but Id love to know what would be most helpful....

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  5. Guess I was mostly wondering if you find that acrylics dry darker than you think they will? Maybe you are used to it or maybe I use too much water. Someone advised to use medium only for thinning and that would help. Possible I just need to use them more. I sort of stick with pastels and play with acrylics. I will look through your blog for step by steps, thanks.

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