Thursday, April 25, 2013

Moving Toward Start


Today I had an Art Visit with my library friend.  We visited the Bowdoin Art Museum here in Town and saw the exhibit of Pers Kirkeby from Denmark.  What I liked the most was his work with chalk on painted masonite.  It didn't look like chalkboard paint but it could have been.  It looked flatter and more densely black.  The chalk looked like the creamy French chalk.  This was my first visit to the Bowdoin museum even though I have lived here for over 20 years.  I'm not a real museum goer.

The second thing I enjoyed (my friend did not) was a 45 minute video of the artist painting a very large piece over many, many months.  We (I) watched him add paint, cover it up, cover that up, scratch into it, cover that up etc. etc.   Now, I realize I just didn't cover things up enough in my own work.  He had massive numbers of layers when it was finally finished.  And under all that paint are three to six other paintings.

The picture above is a kitchen but you have the black painted masonite (if you will), the rolling cart is standing in for the rolling scaffold that Pers climbed up on to paint the top sections of what was a room sized canvas, what we are missing is all the paint and the scribbled designs in creamy chalk.  And wasn't that what I have been trying to do--chalk on black fabric?  Well, now I need some big squares of masonite.  And synthetic paint.  Which my friend and I agreed must be acrylic.

It's warm outdoors and cold here inside.  Tomorrow will be a very stressful day for me-- work and then the lecture/demonstration.  G has all kinds of things he wants me to do with him, but I feel like I need to type up my class notes and make a list of what I hope to accomplish during my demos.  This is how I felt when I had to present to one of the local garden clubs.  Like I should never have agreed to do it.

Work is in flux.  All the employees I began with 6 years ago, are gone.  To other, better, jobs.  I think I like most of the new hires, but only time will tell.  The new ones are rubbing the more senior (but still new to me) employees the wrong way.  I think it's because the "new" are older (40's) and the "old" are in their late teens and early 20's.  All this, and training, is making me very tired.  The "new" are so eager.  I remember being like that my first Spring.  Trying so hard not to screw up.  I was SO MUCH OLDER than everyone else.  But it eventually worked out.  Like years later.  LOL.

And I am still older than everyone else.  So that's the same.

No comments: