“I need to expand my portfolio,” I said. “I need to try new mediums and new subjects.”
“I’ve been wanting to do some landscapes lately.. and trying acrylic might be fun.. Well, why don’t I try them both at once?”
Wasn’t that a great idea.
This year has been a year of exploration. Not only for my art, but for my life in general. I think this exhibit reflects a lot of that. My original proposal, to make several landscapes using acrylic paints, was a bit of a struggle, and things quickly split into their own directions as I realized things were harder or too prep-heavy or this or that. What was once a landscape became a dream-image, vague ideas of places inhabited by strange ghosts, where nothing is quite clear and nothing is quite real. The idea of a series of paintings was left behind for whatever landscape-y thing came to my mind, or whatever came to my mind at all, really… while my outside world was shifting and spiralling I would come to Portfolio class and stick anything I felt onto a piece of paper. While it was calming, it has not resulted in many “finished” pieces to show today. The problem with drawing from emotion, see, is that that emotion only sticks around for so long, especially when you’re a moody teenager. I would begin a project one day, and feel all good and well about it, but by next class any shred of motivation was gone. A little graveyard of unfinished ideas sits in my drawer… perhaps we’ll pull them out again, someday. For now they rest.
During the exhibition my current sketchbook was also on display, but none of it will be listed here.
Thank you for dropping by.