Laguardia Open House

Tonight we went to the open house for accepted students.  Daya is so excited.
I'm glad she will be there, and I'm glad she is in a small department. (Dance is the second smallest after theater tech.)

Since the dance students don't perform at all until Junior/Senior year, they aren't in competition with each other.  I like that.

I heard from staff and other students that the dance kids tend to stick together, and I like that, too.  LaG is a big school, and I'm glad Daya will have a small home inside such a large place.

She will have academic classes with kids from the other studios, which is also good.  But the dance kids are together in class for all 4 years- 3 hours a day 5 days a week- and they are expected to be a family.  I hope it is really like that.  The dance students do seem to be pretty happy.  The demo class they gave was lovely.

As usual I spent too much time wandering around in the art rooms and art gallery.  Daya gets cross with me for being too interested in the art department.  But I can't help it.  There are paintings ALL OVER the school, which I think is just wonderful.  There is some wonderful work, too. And I love that they have the art kids doing full-out oil painting.

I am so very, very proud of Daya!!

Gouache and More Color

Daya was in her room and it was very very quiet... I went in to check and found her fast asleep, guarded by Pebbles.

***
An artist friend posted some lovely gouache sketches.  I asked her about her palette, which she shared.  I got one.  It's an empty palette and I filled it myself from tubes.  Isn't it adorable?

During dance I used this new palette for the first time, and I like it a lot!

Since now I have done enough gouaches to look at them as a group, I have been evaluating and critiquing them as a whole.  What I have come to is they are too grey.  I need more color.  So that was my goal last night.

This is so odd because I'm a pastel-person and also a color junkie... but my gouache sketches are so grey!  I don't have this issue in any other medium. 

Anyhow, here is the studio again, with turquoise.

Mirrors

So, I had something happen to me that does happen to artists now and then.
I've listened to some similar stories through the years so I know this is a thing that happens, and it's just life sometimes.

Sometimes we do a portrait of someone and they hate it. This has just happened to me.
And this can be jarring because it was done in a space of wonderful experience.  And also because I see so much beauty in this person, but she cannot see it in herself.  She struggles with extreme negativity in general. And yet I think she is absolutely amazing.

So actually the painting really is fine, but she is seeing herself in it ..... the way she sees herself. I guess on one hand that makes the painting very successful.   On the other hand it feels like artistic failure.

I always want my paintings to bring joy, and I would be wrong to say my friend's reaction doesn't sting a little bit. But only a little, because I understand it, and it will pass.  I don't take it personally, and I know it isn't the painting itself, either.  I know it is 100% about how my friend sees herself, even though I see her very differently.  It could have been any painting. It isn't about me.

Because this is someone I have known for a long time and I care about, I'm not going to post the sketch here and it is no longer on Facebook.  Because I want her to feel comfortable.  I'm sorry she didn't like it, I'm sorry it didn't bring joy, I'm sorry she can't see the beauty others see in her.

Sometimes it's good to find similar stories to relate to.  Here's the one about the hated Winston Churchill portrait.  But honestly, that one really is a terrible portrait!

Gouache and Lincoln Center

I met up with the NYC Urban Sketchers on Saturday to paint Lincoln Center.

This is the Ugly Sculpture in front of Julliard.
It is so.... UGLY!

Daisies

Last night the painting group at work met.  They are instructed sessions with a demo in the beginning, then people work on their own stuff.  There are some very good artists in the room.  As always I LOVE seeing what everyone is working on.

The class is open to everyone here, but was specifically geared as stress reduction for journalists.
It's a wonderful concept.  even though I do my own thing, I love listening to the teacher and I still always learn something, even if it is a new way of saying something, or saying something in a way I never thought of before.

Like clouds have sides.  Which is true, they absolutely do, but I have never thought of them like that.  Perspective, mass, edges, and form yes- but sides...!  Now that will be in my head every time I paint clouds, and they will be better because of it.

People work from photos, but I don't want to do that.  So last night I got some beautiful coral pink daisies and I painted them.

PITA was a pain in the ass and she lost the wood bit that holds the drawer in when she is closed.
I don't know how anyone takes these French easels outside.

I think the painting is 9x12.  Oil of course.
It's a 2 hour study, and I don't care about it beyond that.

I have a large empty drawer at my desk and I left the painting in there to dry.

My desk has a very subtle fragrance of oil paint now..... likely one of those things that I can detect but no one else can (I hope...)... in any case it will be gone by Monday.  It is very faint so I'm not worried about it.  And I'm running my air purifier. (The scent is not toxic, it is just the oil in the paint.)

The Abundance Master

So here's a story....

Last night I walked downtown to yoga after work.  I walked down 7th Ave from Times Square down to the West Village.  It is a nice walk and I do it often when the weather is nice.

Somewhere in the 20s, I stopped at a red light and a man stopped next to me.  An older Black man.  Looked totally normal.  He was talking.  Very conversationally in a pleasant way.  At first I thought he was on the phone with someone but he wasn't.

Anyhow, he grandly gestured across the street to the opposite corner.  He said,

"A house! It takes up the whole block! There is a courtyard inside!"  

He kept talking about the house as if it was there.  He looked at me as if he was talking to me- not specifically, but just because I was there and looking at him, so I was included in his sharing of luxurious visions.

For the record, I'm pretty down with a house that takes up the whole block with a nice courtyard inside.  I liked this conversation very much.  I liked this man.  I did not think he was crazy or creepy.
I thought he was pretty wonderful.

The light changed and we crossed the street.

He kept talking.  Pleasant, happy, excited conversation.  Every single thing he saw he converted to outrageous luxury.  It didn't matter what it was. He had a wonderful smile.  He was so happy, basking in the absolute unquestionable luxury of everything around him.

"The Freedom Tower!  Sitting at the top, watching the yachts!"

That sounded pretty good to me, too.

Unfortunately I couldn't hear a lot of the other stuff he said due to street noise.
But I was thinking, this guy is a genius. He's really "there".  A master of abundance.  He refused to see anything else.  He couldn't see anything else.  And there is something so powerful in that perception.  He has a powerful and important lesson to teach.

But his best interpretation came right before we parted ways, as we passed a construction site:

"A porta-potty!  On ice!  IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CARRIBEAN!"

It just goes to show that anything can be looked at in any light.
This guy saw lavish luxury in a porta-potty, which is so amazing and extraordinary I am blown away.

Gouache and Topiary Cats

After parent-teacher conferences we went right to dance, and I painted as I always do on Tuesday nights in the studio.

But I needed a break from reality, I didn't feel like painting the studio, and my mind needed to relax.

So I went to Topiary Cat Land.  Painting from imagination is really, really important and I haven't been doing much of it lately.  Painting from life is vitally important, but then there comes a time to do your own thing.  It is always a back-and-forth.

Working from imagination frees my mind and feels good.

I was hidden away at the table behind the Split Wall, and after class Ms Shauna came over just to see what I was painting, because it is usually the studio.  It took her a minute to figure out my painting.

Dental Insurance and the Great Depression

We have made it through the very last parent-teacher conference for middle school.
As always, everyone loves Daya and she is amazing.

(*I* am the drama teacher's favorite though.)

Daya's social studies teacher told me how Daya explained the Great Depression using an analogy of........ dental insurance.

She explained the Great Depression using dental insurance.  And it totally worked.
(If you are as perplexed as I was, and the teacher.... she explained that preventative stuff is easier to take care of and cover, but when those measures aren't taken things get bad.)

It is a thousand per cent my fault that Daya was talking about dental insurance, because I had to pay a small deductible for her recent cleaning that I didn't realize I had to pay etc etc... and I was telling her how it was fine because I'd rather pay for preventative work than something going wrong.

I also pointed out that not doing preventative dental work can also lead to a Great Depression financially, physically, and mentally!

Appreciating PITA

I'm very open about my stance on French easels.
I basically hate them.

Even though I have 2- my full size Julian from college, and a half-box Julian someone gave me several years ago.

This half-box has been sitting in the darkest dustiest corner of my studio for about 6 years.

But now I'm in the painting group at work, and one of the journalists has an art empire at her desk including her half-box... so that inspired me to bring mine to work.

Her name is PITA and I am now appreciating her and realizing her positive purpose.

When I set her up last night to make sure she was still ok and her twisty bits were still twisty (they are), she bit me.  And she had a problem with her back leg but I fixed it.

This is the second time this year that I have found new purpose for something that has been sitting in my studio unused forever.  This is why I like having All The Supplies because - though it might take years- they sit in the background until they are needed, and their presence somehow makes a path possible.  I don't know how else to say it, but I find this to be very true with my art stuff in particular.

So, even though she bit me, I am really appreciating PITA.

We are friends, but her name is still PITA**.

***All French easels are a pain in the ass.

Laguardia High School Plein Air

Today I went over to Laguardia to do a plein air present for Daya.

I did not know we would be getting 40mph winds.... it started as I started but I was already set up so....

The wind was absolutely brutal and was smacking me from behind the whole time. An illegally parked car right at the bus stop (RED CAR, VA PLATES) messed up my location pictures because of crazy laser-glare coming off the windshield going straight into my camera.. (who the heck parks right IN the bus stop...) I chose my spot deliberately for the view and also because of the bus stop... no one could park in front of me but......

Several people came over to me to inquire about the wind and also complain about it. My gear holds up just fine in the wind but I had to brace myself or wait for gusts to pass while painting.

I met an almost 90-year old musician who remembers when the school first opened in the 1940s, a golden retriever, and lots of other cool people.

As I was doing the lettering on the school-- seriously this actually happened when I was right in the middle of it-- a man came up to me and wanted to tell me how much he loved doing calligraphy!

What lovely synchronicity.

8x10 oil, three hours.

I angled the camera so the car was hidden behind the painting but the light was still bouncing into the lens.

Gouache and Team Acro

I finally had a chance to finish up the painting I started at competition last Sunday.

About 3/4 of it was done on-location at the Nexstar competition in New Jersey.  At home I added the figures and a few touch-ups.

The setup was challenging and I had to think it through.  Luckily I brought my Inktense pencils, and used those and a water brush in the auditorium to do a full underpainting.  Then, back in the waiting area, I went over it in gouache.

This is Team Acro on stage.  There are 8 people in the dance but 6 worked better compositionally,

No one is a specific person anyhow.

Goodbye Stores

Oh so sad....... the nearest Kohls to me is closing!
What will I do?

Where will I get..... everything?

Seriously, I LOVED Kohls.  Daya and I have gone there together since it opened about 10 years ago.
We have a lot of nice memories shopping there though the years.

This comes right after the closing of Jerry's, one of my other Very Loved Places.

They are liquidating the store, everything is being sold, and despite my sadness at the store closing, the mannequins are pretty funny all together.  It is a Butt Farm.  If I had a spacious studio I would have gotten one!

Fiorello H. Laguardia High School Of Music & Art and Performing Arts

Daya got into the dance program at Laguardia!!!

The whole name of the school is probably the longest of all NYC schools:
Fiorello H. Laguardia High School Of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

And it is an AWESOME place to be.  (Even though everyone hates the principal.)

She has wanted this since 5th grade.
So back then I told her if she really wants it, she'll have to work very, very hard over years for it-- and she did it!

I don't know how many dance kids got in this year, but last year I believe it was around 80.

Actually WE did it, as there is no way she could do it without some very serious mom-support, and I have done this support on my own for the most part.  But it was enough, and this will be an AMAZING 4 years.

She is glowing!!

It is probably time for the ridiculous Laguardia Tree to come down; it has seen better days and has been up since November.  I'm sure Daya is the onliest kid ever in NYC to have a Laguardia Tree.

*****
Daya also received an offer to the Specialized High School of Math, Science, and Engineering from her SHSAT score of 530.  This is pretty awesome, especially considering I didn't put her in a SHSAT test prep course (because of dance scheduling) and she did minimal prep from a couple of books.

It is one of the 8 specialized academic high schools in NYC (LaG is the ninth but doesn't use the SHSAT), and she would be there if she hadn't gotten Laguardia.  She put this one down as her second choice, Stuyvesant was first.  To be honest neither of us cared too much about SHSAT results, but I wanted her to take it to open up options.  If I had test-prepped her I'm sure she could have gone to Stuyvesant.  Everyone who gets in there has test-prepped for at least a year, but more often 2 years before taking the SHSAT.****

But HSMSE is a really amazing school and I just could not be more proud of her.

Her regular high school offer was an engineering program at an engineering high school.

I still expect Daya to continue being a total math geek at Laguardia.

****That's why there was a lawsuit about specialized high school admissions, because the student populations are becoming less and less diverse.  Everyone test-preps their kids for these schools, Satuirday classes 2 years before the test are very common.  The specialized high schools only look at the SHSAT score, which is very narrow criteria.

Nexstar

Here are some pictures from Competition this weekend.
We were in NJ and had to stay overnight.
Daya competed 4 dances this year.

The studio KILLED it at competition- every single dance placed, they are going to Nationals again, and they got the studio award for professionalism which almost no one gets.

I am so proud!!

(I did start a painting of the stage but need to finish it up at home)

Gouache and Editorial

I recently discovered that a group of journalists meet twice a month to paint.
In the office.
2 floors down from my desk.
And all the supplies are there already!
NICE supplies, too!

This has been going on since 2016.....!
I'm not in editorial so that's probably why I had no idea.

So of course I have to join them.
And as it turned out the lady who heads up the whole thing was in my January class at Art Students League!
Small world.

It is in an instructed class but people also work on whatever they want.  For my first time there, I painted the class.

Next time I'll work in oil.

*******

HIGH SCHOOL RESULTS ARE STILL NOT IN AND THEY ARE VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY LATE.

Everyone is basically going nuts.

The deadline for private school deposits was yesterday, which put a lot of people in a bad place.

Students are stressing.

Parents are stressing.

Daya is stressing.

I'm not stressing but I'm so done with this waiting.

The letters were originally supposed to come out on March 4th but there was a lawsuit with admissions criteria to 8 of the specialized high schools (LaGuardia was not included) so there was a delay. But the lawsuit was in February and was resolved on-time and the results should have been ready right after...they were calculated months ago.

This morning I got notification results will come sometime next week...but no one knows the day.

The DOE probably still doesn't know the day.

No communication***, delays, mis-management.

But next week we will finally see the end of this terrible waiting.

*** look at that, a 2019 update stuck at the top of a 2018 article.

Forever 21 Again

I moved from the dungeon on the third floor to my nice new happy desk on 21.

That voice which yelled TEMPORARY when I first went to 3 was correct and it put me at great ease the whole time I was down there.

NOPE.

When I started here 13 years ago, I sat on 21.  Now 11 years later I'm back!  And I'm very glad to be back.  I'm very happy with my new desk and I'm glad to be back on this floor. The change overall is good and I needed it.

Although I don't have a window seat anymore, I'm not too far from the window and there is good air and good light here.

I did get a grow light for my plants so they can be happy, too.

My new light has a timer feature, so I read the instruction manual to figure it out..... and look at the plant on the cover!  A stapeliad!! A Stapelia Gigantea MY FAVORITE PLANT which also happens to be on my desk.... they are not very common house plants as far as I am aware so what a fun synchronicity that was.

I could probably keep an African Violet pretty happy here now, maybe I should get one.

Gouache and Mirrors

Here is a mirror perspective gouache painting I did at the studio.
It took a little over an hour and made my head all twisty.

Bathroom Refresh

On Monday when I got home from work I asked Daya if she wanted to go get paint and paint the bathroom.
Immediately.

She said yes so that's what we did.

Although it might seem spontaneous, I have been wanting to re-paint my bathroom for over a year and I just had ENOUGH and couldn't live with it for one more day.

Daya did about half the work and we both like it very much.

Hands

On Saturday I went to draw hands with Urban Sketchers NYC.
My friend Jin has a fountain pen which is nice and fast- a good one... it is a Moonman M2 and is around $20.
So, if you need a good fountain pen for drawing, that's a good one... I of course got one and I like it very much.

We all met in the atrium of the IBM building, and I need to go back there, what a great place to paint!

It was nice seeing some people I met at the portrait party again.  We all drew each others' hands for 4 hours.

Apparently there is a recurring doll meetup n the atrium.

Gouache and Friday Rehearsal

I ran out of time on this one!
Another step in my learning.....

Gouache & Puffers & T-Rex

My amazing friend Drusilla invented the BEST WORD EVER today: 

Pufferfishish.

So instead of painting the dance studio at dance, I painted puffers in my sketchbook.

I did a little experimenting with materials combinations.

Near the end of class, one of the other moms came over to chat. She works at the Museum of Natural History, and today her new exhibit opened.  So for the party, she wore a T-Rex inner ear.  It is larger than life, and she thinks it is too big but I think it is the coolest thing ever.

She was so nice to let me try it on!

So then I was explaining how pufferfishish came about, and how Dru and I like weird animals and we call them our pets, she pulled up a video of peacock spiders doing the most ridiculous mating dance.

I love these wonderfully weird encounters. 

Gouache and Audition

Yesterday Daya had an audition at Manhattan Youth ballet for their summer program.

She has muscles.

I painted while waiting, about an hour and 15 mins.
The time went by so fast.

Afterward, a woman came up to me and said she had been watching the whole time- she couldn't believe I just pulled a whole art studio out of my bag like it was nothing (it is no big deal), and she loved my painting and just thought the whole thing was so cool.

Maybe one day she will start painting, too.