In my effort to be Lisa Congdon and Emily Martin, I'm taking a five week online class through the amazing art agent, Lilla Rogers. I don't know how it's possible I've learned so much it's felt like an odyssey. Maybe being in an online group with 200 generous people serious about illustration who force me to up my game? The competition of Lilla's attention? A new computer with the latest versions of illustrator and photoshop?
All those things probably. I've learned not so much from the workshop, but from being in the workshop and having to have to bring the projects to these peers, many of them professional illustrators--that I've been forced to up my layers and clipping paths game in photoshop (why did I resist?)
Lilla really is a fairy art mother--although now I'm thinking I really should have been Lilla Rogers--she has so much great advice to live by. One thought of hers I really like is "Create art to your own taste level." Because it's right in there that I think the growth takes place. The part where Ira Glass says, your taste is what gets you in the art game to start with and your taste is why your work disappoints you. I've been working on these projects, trying to do enough volume that I can see where the taste gap is. This class pushes that.
Our latest project starts with the assignment of considering our collections.
Things I collect in real life or imaginary:
matchbooks left in our house by the previous owner
(Peter had a matchbook collection that burned)
Hermes scarves (one. may be a fake, I can't tell.)
scarves in general, I love scarves
crisscraft boats
MGs
houses in Tahoe
anything by Rae Eames
art by Rex Ray
vintage tablecloths, postcards, purses
vintage clothes, especially victorian whites
cashmere sweaters
bird ephemera
butterflies
african jewelry
violets, roses, tulips,
teapots
steiff stuffed animals
children's books
liberty fabric
doll house furniture
perfume
jewelery from a particular store on Rue de Rivoli in Paris
honey
birds nests
feathers
Carpthian wedding chests
I like the imaginary collections. It reminds me of this song we are listening to a lot right now, George Ezra's Budapest where he lists all the things (he doesn't have) that he would give up for his love. "My house in Budapest, my golden grand piano, my hidden treasure chest, my beautiful castillo." Yeah, I collect all those thing too.