Food Shopping

So this is what can happen when an artist goes food shopping.

I saw this thing at my favorite organic booth at our local farmer's market and just had to have it. The guy said it was celeria and told us of a few ways to prepare it. However, I didn't really pay attention to what he was saying because I could not. stop. looking. at the celeria. So for two bucks I now have this thing to gaze upon. I might make a drawing or a painting of it, but actually I just want to enjoy looking at it; it is very textural, voluminous, earthy and kind of bizarre. I consider these to be very good attributes.

I guess I might end up cooking it or maybe I will buy another one next week so I can still have one to look at for awhile. I found some recipes and they look interesting.

Will keep y'all posted. Heh.

Practically Gourmet

My mom rarely cooked when I was a kid. We seldom sat down to eat together and most of our food was whatever I could cook or whatever she could make in 5 minutes or less. She often brought home leftover food from whichever restaurant she was working at, but we mostly got by on packaged foods, hot dogs, tv dinners, donuts, candy bars from the gas station on the corner, that sort of thing. We qualified for food stamps so once a month or so there was a trip to the grocery store and that was pretty exciting. Chocolate pudding in cans! Fruit Loops cereal! Bologna! Wonder Bread! Those were big treats for my sister and I. So obviously I grew up with food issues, childhood food habits that I have been trying to override almost all my adult life. At least I don't really crave any of the specific foods that I grew up eating, mostly since we had the same foods so often that I still can't bear to even look at certain things. Velveeta cheese and Hamburger Helper would be good examples of that. Heh.

But once in awhile my mom would pull out her cookbook and make a real dinner, especially if family was coming to town to visit. We were always excited about that but I am afraid it always ended badly. She had two dinners in her repertoire; one was a chicken/rice/Lipton onion soup mix casserole which wasn't bad (I make it once in awhile) except that she always overcooked it. I was shocked to learn as an adult that rice was actually soft and not crunchy. The other thing she made was meatloaf, which always smelled good, but then had a suspicious vomit like flavor to it that was pretty disappointing to say the least. I never did figure out what she added to get that flavor.

Anyway, my mom died over a year ago and last summer I received some of her belongings. I have been slowly sorting through things and greatly appreciated the irony of getting her cookbook and box of recipes. I make most of our food from scratch and while my kids certainly have the occasional crappy food, mostly we eat unprocessed, organic foods. I was so proud when my children expressed utter horror when they saw these three recipes:

In case you can't believe your eyes, the recipes are for Coca-Cola Cake, Dump Cake, Wacky Cake (wacky ingredient seems to be vinegar?) and the real stomach turner is Mayonnaise Cake. I have a vague memory of that one, it was actually a chocolate cake and the mayo was supposed to make it more moist. I suppose it tasted ok but well, maybe it should have a different name. And who wants Miracle Whip (of course we only had Miracle Whip) in their cake? yuck.

There were other interesting things in the book too. I left my mark on her notes for her work in a furniture repair shop, and yes that is a cigarette burn mark on the paper, my mom was never without a Kool Menthol in her hand. Don't get me started on how everything of hers STILL smells like smoke....

This was a coffee cake recipe written by my grandmother:

And oddly, my mother's tax return from 1975 was tucked in the cakes and cookies section which was just classic. But it was also a poignant reminder to me of my childhood and of how hard she worked; she mostly had waitress jobs, but that year she got a "better" job refinishing furniture, a job that she thought might have a future. Unfortunately, there were no tips at this job and her income - $2,450.83, was far less than what she earned as a waitress. She went back to waitressing the following year and stuck with it until a few years before she died.

Well, I am off to bake something, anything to rid myself of thoughts of Mayonnaise Cake running through my head!

Routine

First I have to ask, what the heck is going on out there? I just checked my stats and daily unique visitors have doubled since I have been here in Vermont. Wow! Are my ramblings actually interesting? Huh. I feel like I should be a bit more entertaining now, but alas, I am too tired tonght.

Thursday, February 7: I went to the studio right after breakfast and puttered around until figure drawing class. I worked in black charcoal and really enjoyed that. I also focused a bit more on the model's face and am pleased with the results (the drawing looks better in person). Well, more or less anyway. After lunch (salad, cheese and the best crusty bread ever) I went back to my studio to put the color on the landscape and barn underpaintings that I did on Tuesday. They turned out ok, but I am not entirely happy with them. I am thinking my landscapes may need to be painted where they originate from? Maybe the hills, roads, fields and barns that surround my home and studio can only be best expressed there. A concept to ponder, I suppose.

Mid-afternoon, I took a walk with Karen and Stella, two women whose studios are in my building. They are both very nice and we all have much in common so there was much to talk about. And it was so nice to get outside and get some exercise. We got back to the studio and all went back to work until dinner, which was an American classic; meatloaf, baked potato, peas and carrots and a chocolate brownie for dessert. After, I checked my emails and then we walked over to the lecture hall to here a reading by visiting author Dave King. It was really enjoyable and I bought a copy of his book, which he signed for me. He was very nice to everyone, asking questions about what we do, where we live etc. I went back to the studio, did a quick glaze on the figure underpaintings and then went back to my house, fully intending to go to bed early. However, when I got there, a bunch of the other residents were in the front room talking, so I grabbed my knitting and joined them. A few other girls got their knitting and even though nearly everyone was practically a different generation than myself, I really enjoyed the evening. They are all very funny, smart and creative, so much so that before I knew it, it was almost midnight, way past my bedtime. I decided not to set my alarm and to sleep in but I woke promptly at 6am anyway.

Friday, February 8: Off to breakfast, which was oatmeal today. The breakfast alternates each day, either oatmeal or scrambled eggs and bacon. There is also always a variety of bread, yogurt and fruit available. I spent the morning preparing a piece of canvas, so that I could work on it on the wall. It turned out very badly, all wrinkly and poorly stretched, so I have to fix it tomorrow (um, just one of the reasons I don't like canvas-stretching it!). Lunch, (the visiting author wisely situated himself at our table, full of pretty painters, including moi, heh, and he was good lunch company) and then right back to the the studio. Sensing a pattern here? I spent the afternoon putting color down on two of the figure paintings and I have to say that I am not very pleased with them at all. In fact I was pretty frustrated. I went outside to take a break and bumped into a girl named Val, who came in and looked at them. She had some good suggestions, then we decided to take a walk down to the post office so she could do a few errands and so I could take a break. When I got back the good daylight was gone so I wasn't able to take any pictures of the paintings. I will take them tomorrow and when I post next time I will describe what is going on. And what isn't.

After dinner (do it yourself burritos and banana chocolate chip cake for dessert) I went to see Val's project in her sculpture studio (which I will post pictures of when she'll allow) and we talked about it for quite awhile. I am happy to find that I can still actually talk about art when I see it and I am feeling really good about expressing myself here, even about installation art, something I often have trouble connecting with.

Anyway, despite my frustrations today, I am bursting with enjoyment about being here. I love my routine, I love my new friends, I love my temporary studio and I love the whole atmosphere. I even love being so tired that I can hardly get to my house that is just next door to the studio. I am definitely coming here again.

Hear that Doug?! Let's just plan on this being a yearly thing.....

PS. I will post more info about the other artists who are here soon, along with links. Some of them kick butt!

Figures

First I am posting the figure drawings that I have done in the last three days. They are done with either black or sanguine conte and the last two are oil, done in the reductive manner that I do my underpaintings. Those were a lot fun, but I am very aware that all of them have "issues", especially the male (head, hands, and maybe even the penis) but it does capture the models pose quite well.

I had a great night's sleep finally, only woke up once in the night! Today I planned to do some more drawings and then maybe start doing some small underpaintings of the figures. However, I woke up thinking that I should just go ahead and do them on the larger birch panels. So this morning after breakfast I went right to the studio. When I got there, though, I decided to rearrange things a bit so I spent some time doing that. I don't really care for the easel (it's wobbly) or the stool (it's wobbly too). I considered hanging the panels on the wall and working that way, but I decided to make do with the easel, although I lowered it and used the plastic lawn chair that comes with each studio. Anyway, I set up my little painting area and it feels pretty comfortable, finally. I did four underpaintings, which are all shown below. Be gentle with me, I don't usually like to post works in progress, especially when I am feeling my way through them, but I fiigure what the heck. It's not like this stuff is really that important in the scheme of things and I promise admit it if they fail during the next stage.

I finished them up and found that it's true-if you don't get to lunch on time, some of the food is gone. So I had a nice salad and a few slices of cheese and went back to the studio. I looked at the underpaintings and realized that they were too dark, so I lightened them up. I went to figure drawing about an hour late and did one decent drawing, of the male, above. There are a few problems with it (face and hands, legs, and maybe even the penis) but it does capture the pose he had.

I took a good walk outside right before dinner, which felt really good and then, OMG dinner! It was some sort of hybrid middle eastern food, one dish had eggplant, chickpeas, and potatoes there was a cauliflower dish, and the best asparagus ever (yes I know, totally not seasonal), hummus, pita chips, crusty bread. And dessert was lemon poppy seed cake. We all rolled out of the dining room after.

I am totally getting into the social thing now. I feel comfortable enough to introduce myself to someone I don't know and then go on to ask the four most common questions here: Where are you from? Painter, writer, sculptor? Which house are you in? Which building is your studio in?

And this evening we were supposed to see slides of some of the artists here, but guess what, no one submitted any. Seems no one has slides anymore. We will be having a jpeg night next week instead. I have spent this evening sitting in the lounge chatting (with a few other women and now a sculptor, Greg, from Brooklyn), listening to the news and trying to get my ancient laptop up and running.

PS. Sorry for the crappy photos. I didn't bring my really good camera, and the oil figure sketches put up quite a glare, so I shot them at an angle.

Settling In

Well, I have been very busy the last few days. Bear with me while I track most of what I do each day. I want to record what I am doing here for me, as well as for any of you who may be interested.

Monday February 4th: I woke up at 5:30, took a shower and then did a little knitting. Wow! I never do that in the morning. Went to have breakfast and then there was a meeting for all of the painters to discuss the studio rules, etc. Then I went back to my studio and finished unpacking and arranging my supplies. I decided to do a few quick underpaintings before lunch, just to warm up. My usual work, one landscape, one barn image. Had lunch then went to the first figure drawing session. The model was wonderful, and I did a nice drawing in sanguine conte. (I will post the figure drawings in a few days) Then I left early to go to the hardware store with the girl whose studio is across the hall from mine. I think I can safely call her a girl, because she is only 23, and technically I could be her mother. But we hit it off and even took a walk later to check out the health food store. Anyway, before dinner I sat down at my table and did some pencil drawings, (using the vintage family photos I bought on ebay as reference) and I feel like I began to work out some ideas that I have about incorporating the figures into my work. Also, it was incredibly pleasurable to just sit and draw. I can't even remember the last time I did that.

After dinner (stuffed chicken breast, roasted potatoes and a salad) I went and worked in the studio for a few more hours, called home and talked to the family, then went to the lounge to check my emails. The ancient laptop I am using conked out before I could write a post, so I went back to my room, knitted, then read about a paragraph in my book before passing out.

Tuesday, 5th. Woke up at 4am, aarrrgh, could have used at least another hour. Went to breakfast and then on to Figure drawing where there was another great model. I did a drawing, then pulled out the paint and did two underpaintings. They were only half hour poses, so there are some funky areas that I didn't get too. But overall I am pleased with them. I tried a third one but had very bad luck with the two different posed so I took the panel back to my studio and did and image based on one of the pencil drawings. Lunch (black bean soup, salad) and then I went to visit another artist's studio. I had talked with Nancy about stapling a big piece of canvas up on the wall and I asked if I could see what she did. I don't work on canvas so I needed some tips, especially about painting on unstretched canvas. We had a nice chat and then went to my studio and she gave me some really good feedback about what I was doing. I had been feeling uncomfortable about using photographic reference so much, but I also couldn't do what I want to do without it. She felt I was telling a story about the people in the photographs, but that it was my vision, despite using other people's photographs. So I did a few more drawings, took a short walk around outside then went back to the drawings again. Dinner and now I am sitting in the lounge and listening to the primary results.

I am beginning to feel more comfortable here, although I have been hit and miss with the meals, as far as sitting near someone to talk to, or someone at all. Mostly it's just my bad timing, either I come in too early and no one sits next to me or I come in late and there are no spots next to the people I know. Oh and very few people her have kids and so far, of the ones I know about, I hold the record for most offspring. So there you go.

More in a few days. Oh and Steven, so far my people do NOT look like barns. However, Doug's advice was to approach them in the same way that I approach the barns and that has been pretty effective, so far anyway. I have yet to do a real, full out color painting that includes the figure.