Busy

After a relatively slow summer, everything got really busy all at once. I have a couple of new commitments that I’m very excited about. On top of teaching RISD freshman drawing, I will be teaching a course this semester for RISD Project Open Door, RISD’s college access program for artistically talented teens attending RI urban public high schools. Although I’ve taught at the high school level in the past, this program has it’s own unique mission and context that will bring it’s own challenges. We start this week, and I’ll be blogging and posting photos about our progress as the course progresses.

Sculpture by Jessica Straus

The second commitment is I’m now working with my artist friend Jessica Straus on publicity for her upcoming exhibition at Boston Sculptor’s Gallery in Boston, MA. Most artists I know see publicity as a chore; I’m the exception in that I find publicity to be a fun and engaging task. It’s even more rewarding when you get to promote someone whose work you really believe in. I’ll get to visit her studio later this week and do an interview with her.  I absolutely love visiting artist studios, they’re so incredibly revealing about the artist and their process, so it will be fun to finally see Jessica’s work space.

I was out of town this weekend, so I haven’t gotten to my studio at all in a few days and already I feel like I’m going through withdrawal. I feel like it’s a plant that I need to water at least every few days or so. Mostly what I’m doing in the studio right now is hand sanding the Dura-Lar surface and sketching the figures out with vine charcoal.  I’m sort of dreading starting to draw with the etching ink, as it’s so permanent and there’s really no going back once it’s on the surface of the Dura-Lar. I feel out of shape with the etching ink, so I think I’m due for some warm ups with that material.