One twenty-page paper: Done. It feels like the completion of this paper has freed up so much time that I've been wanting to spend on finishing commissions, and visually discoursing on a couple of other ideas, lazily, in my sketchbooks.
It's a good feeling, to have this weight off my brain and this pressure off my lungs. I can breathe again, and I have so much more to think about now. That's it for my English requirement, too, and now the other workloads don't seem half as intimidating. The brain is kind of like a digestive system that way.
After cutting out of art history early yesterday, I attended a wonderful lecture by Scott Noel last night. His works:
http://www.grossmccleaf.com/artistpages/noelpage.htm
He spoke at length about paintings as "maps of fiercely-interlocking shapes", and about light. He offered descriptions several different kinds of light that he noticed in his studios throughout his career and named them. He contrasted painting human figures in "warm, sunny light" vs. painting them in "cool, reflected light", which he called "Northern light". Then there was "melting ice cream light", which he found in the summer months. That's my favorite one, I think.
He equated two of his other favorite subjects, still-lives and cityscapes, and showed us how similar the process was to construct them on a picture plane; he treats his still-lives as if he were painting a city, and vice versa, and I began to see how these two subjects really transcend each other. If painting still-lifes is thought about this way, they can be given all sorts of characteristics (like gender, even) he explained, so much more interest can be found in them and they become metaphors and personifications of other things.
Really fascinating guy.
On a completely spontaneous not, Flyleaf will be releasing their sophomore full-length album in August this year! I really can't wait for this (it's just so hard to believe, considering their 4-year hiatus)! I'm anticipating amazing amazing things here.
