What Matters Most

Things are crazy and there isn't a whole lot of time. Family demands, church and school keep me and my family busy. As I think about this past school year, however, I feel like I have really been given the opportunity to recognize those things that are most important in life. Not to say I didn't realize it before, but I have internalized and come to understand that family and friends are everything. Going to Art School in NYC has been a huge sacrafice. We have had to give up a lot of monetary items. We are currently living with my wife's parents. Thanks to them this has all been possible, but it is difficult humbling ourselves to accept their help. I feel so greatful for an understanding of those things that matter most. I see a lot of people that are mis-directed. Before I came to art school I was pursuing Dentistry. There were courses that I absolutely loved, anatomy, biology, but then there were others, like chemistry that I hated with a passion. I found myself trying to make something work that I didn't believe in 100%. One of the things that helped push me towards art was the believe that I would be most successful doing what I love to do. Monetarily it may not be as rewarding as dentistry, but as I have come to accept that I have set my sites on greater goals. You can be happy, truly happy when you focus on what matters most.

Moving Forward

I really don't have a whole lot to report. School is going well. I am trying to get the Salt Lake Temple Sketch digitized and printed-I'm not sure how long that is going to take me. I finished the hand cast drawing I was doing (I'll get a picture of it this weekend) and will probably begin my final cast drawing in March. Right now I am working on my block-in's before starting the final. The night class is going well. I only have two more days to finish. I'll take a picture Friday to show the progress.

Here is the progress on the lab I started at my brother's house during Christmas break. To the right is a cast I was blocking in the other day at school.

Finally I get to Paint!

Last month I started taking two night classes, which I plan to continue this month, portrait painting and portrait sculpture. I am really enjoying both, but especially the painting. The first three weeks were spent drawing the head and finally this week I transfered it to canvas and started to paint. The transfer process is not entirely accurate. It lacks the human touch, so this week I painted the contours and added a light wash. I have included the canvas up to this point. Next week I will start modeling or makeing the head look 3-d. I am really excited. Because of the added problems with color this first painting will be monochromatic. Essentially, everything I have been doing up to this point is in preparation for painting. It is the same process, just paint instead of graphite. I have included both the painting and the drawing I transfered it from. The model is the younger sister of one of my fellow classmates. It is a two month pose-one night a week for three hours. So I will have four more weeks to paint.

In class I am finishing up the hand. After that I will spend several weeks working on block-ins before starting my final piece. The final piece should take 2-3 months and will be a lot more complex than I have attempted thus far. After that I will start the whole process over, but painting casts instead of drawing. I hope I can start painting before school ends in May.

Handy

Need a hand? I'm still not done, but I should finish it up this coming week. When all is said and done I think it will have taken just over 2 months. On this particular cast I feel like I really have grown a lot more than on the previous ones. I feel a lot more capable of identifying the relationship of values and placing those down on paper to get an object to look 3-D. I still have to do a final project. I'm looking around to find a cast I want to do. I'm thinking about doing a full figure ecorche cast (ecorche removes the skin and shows the underlining muscle structure). After coming back from Christmas break we started working from live models. I have included a few drawings of these.










This was the first figure drawing I did.


















Each is a 4 hour pose.














This was my first portrait drawing. I have really enjoyed portraiture and have actually started a portrait of my wife.















This was our second week model and first female model.



This picture was taken about 2 hours in to my drawing.

2009

Alright, the new year is almost here... so now what. If you think about, it there really isn't anything particularly special that happens as we pass from Dec 31st to January 1st. Except that it gives us the opportunity to close out a small chapter of our lives and open a new one. A new beginning creates the opportunity for change. At this unique period of my life and that of my family I look forward with great anticipation for the new skills I will acquire. Now is a time of preparation. We are preparing for the time when our income will rely completely on the skills I am gaining and developing now. This Christmas we went down to my brother's house and spent a week there. They have a beautiful house with a lot of land. We look forward to the day we will hopefully have a little land and a house of our own. A place where our girls can run and play. As we look forward to and plan for the future, I think it is important to recognize what we have accomplished in the past and understand the many blessings God has granted us. The opportunity to attend school in New York I believe is a blessing from God. It has been interesting seeing everything come together in order to allow my family and I to move out here and pursue art. One of the reasons I wanted to pursue art was to find out how far can I take my artistic abilities-how good can I get? Not only do we need to recognize what we have accomplished and how, but we need to set goals or specific opportunities to evaluate our progress and determine how to alter our behavior to accomplish what we want. I plan on spending this new years eve pondering how I can take full advantage of what God has given me to develop my art work this coming year. I also plan on thinking about what are the needs of my family and how I can better meet those needs and assist them as they grow and develop this coming year. How exciting. This year will bring great promise. As long as I can see where I am headed, take time to evaluate and reevaluate, and execute. We are indeed living the dream.