how big is your wrap?

Thank god for low key days. I'm still tired and if I had to really work on breaking the artists mold today I might just end up breaking myself.

We critiqued our crosshatch Illustrator pieces in Digital Tools. Mine needed a little more contrast. Then we worked on compositions using squares and circles for the rest of class. Not really totally helpful but the more practice on Illustrator the better.

There was a note on the door for Drawing telling us that we were going to be meeting at the Portland Art Museum. There was a great Leonard Baskin show going on, really amazing woodcuts. I knew his work looked familiar, it all clicked when I saw the prints from his various collaborations that he did with Ted Hughes. "Oh yeah! I new his style was familiar, Crow."

We were instructed to draw three pieces in the museum so I drew in pen Leonard Baskin's "Self Portrait as a Priest" (actually I outlined the thick black lines he did, instead of filling them in. That would have killed my pen), a line art version of Milton Avery's "Portrait of Annette Kaufman" and I lightly sketched the face of the woman from Jean François de Troy's "Allegory of Music". I have never been keen on assignments that have to do with trying to recapture the beauty of already existing work, but I do love discovering more about the piece as I focus on the details as I try to recreate them.

Phil and I ran into Arvie at coat-check as we were preparing to leave for lunch. Arvie told us that instead we were going to his studio/to check out a gallery. I don't know if you can actually still hold class during the campus-wide lunch hour but he has such a strong, commanding voice and so I followed him with only minor complaints (I was really hungry).

The gallery/studio ended up being in the same building my comic shop is. The first floor was mostly gallery space and a few shops, and above that are 35 artist studios. I asked Arvie if he was working on a piece using sandwiches as a medium and he said no. The gallery showing was very conceptual and a little sloppy for my tastes , I think I might have enjoyed it had I not spent the past hour and a half gazing at "fine art".

Arvie's studio was pretty awesome, improved by the fact that he whipped out some jelly beans and potato chips to share with us. It was a really nice large space with good light and enough room for his paintings (which are quite massive and colorful). After the tour he dismissed us for the day, as he had taught through lunch and whatnot.

Mollie, Mel, Eva and I looked about in the comic shop. Mel bought a little self-printed minicomic. Nothing new had come in for me so we all left to get food. We hit up one of the parking lot vendors, I got a chicken Cesar salad wrap. It was good though a little pricey. My hunger wins over my common sense most of the time. Maybe I should have held out for Hot Lips instead. Oh well.

We went back to PNCA and then parted ways. I'm so glad I don't have any 6-9 classes, that is just brutal! Biked home and now I can take it easy(er). Read some Art History. Whoo.