Making the Move ~ A SnitzerArt.com Article

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Making the Move

I posted this on January 16, 2008 and put it in

Well, my time is up in Texas. I wanted to thank Jon for the wonderful instruction I had received and I feel confident that I can continue the workload on my own. It was definitely a great experience to be able to pick Jon’s brain a bit on the different struggles and lessons he had to absorb and learn, but the thought of home with hockey nights with the teammates again, my girlfriend, and continuing on down the path on my own is too exciting to pass up now.

As for the most valuable thing I can take away from my time in Dallas, I’d actually probably have to list two.

Primarily, I finally learned the meaning of relationships in art. Now this concept is around us in everyday life with everything, but for art, specifically drawing and painting, it is VITAL. This concept is spoken of a lot though by many artists, most notably Richard Schmid in his book Alla Prima. They funny thing is I had read and re-read Alla Prima 15 times and my major gripe now is that the concept as Richard had laid out didn’t really sink in. I can’t really say that it’s of any fault of the book though, I think it was all a matter of experiencing the lesson rather than reading it.

This concept was important enough though that we had spent the majority of our time on it and I barely scratched the surface of painting with Jon, but I feel confident now that I can go back and continue working on my own, with the tools provided, and just begin to expand and develop upon the work I was doing and intensely study master paintings and their works.

Before I forget though, the second thing I took from this experience is that art doesn’t fit into a clean routine. I know some artists out there probably feel like they have to stick to a curriculum and never stray during their studies. For the most part I’m finding it’s not how it works, unless you want to pigeonhole yourself into a certain style. The process of learning art, and learning how to do it well, feels like a much more dynamic process, and it rewards those people who take greater risks in their learning program. It isn’t for the timid, it isn’t for the fearful, but it does take a solid hand to guide you, but it doesn’t need to hold you back. To sum all of that up, pick the good stuff, leave the bad stuff behind, and try to move forward with as much confidence in your work and your abilities as possible.

For me, I’m ready to show the world what kind of work I can do.