True North

Last night our harbor was socked in the fog which glowed pink, green, yellow.  Beyond, above the fog bank the sky.  While I scanned the sky to orient true north an old conversation with my teacher Andy ran through my head.  figure drawing class, Andy bent over my shoulder, talking about visual drives, pushing my eye, here, here, here.  frustration in my eye, my hand, my body, my brain "What am I looking for?" Andy simply said "anything."

and just then, last night, as Andy's 'anything' faded i saw the satellite directly above my upturned head.

Hans Hofmann

still learning from this great teacher. maybe my students will too. his focus was on the picture plane and i like this. i often tell my students to kick other painters 'out of their heads', and then this painter/teacher says look, look, look...and one day they will kick me out of their head, and find they are painting as themselves.

Prince Conger!

Domenic Cretara suggested that if I ever had the opportunity to study with Conger Metcalf, that I should.   Within a year of leaving The Art Institute I found myself exhibiting with Conger at Boston's Park Street Church.  I introduced myself, showed him my work and gave Domenic's recommendation.  Conger had a studio above a cleansers on Charles Street.  We would meet on Wednesday evenings during the weekly 'cocktail hour'.  I was placed at a window with a plaster cast of a head.  My instructions were to draw the symmetry of the face.  Several weeks passed this way, I drew at the window, Conger entertained.  On the final night of my lessons (4, 6?) he gave me a plaster cast of a face.  He told me to return when I could draw the symmetry of the face.

20 odd years later my daughter EB and I returned the cast to him.  "Are you here to see the Prince?"  and then "Prince Conger, your audience is here."  then to us, "go on, up the stairs to the top on the left.  we passed stacks and stacks of paintings and books.  His rooms...Venetian tapestries, gilded frames, Venetian Shutters nailed to the walls.  and Conger, "did you bring the pink Ginger Ale?".

I returned the mask to Conger and told him that while the face appears to be symmetrical, there is no real symmetry, the left and right sides are not alike.  "oh, really."  he laughed.  "you know, I gave all of these masks away.  this is the first to return."

He reviewed my work.  suggested I was having a lot of fun with my work and asked if I taught.  me, full of myself, suggested that "I haven't had to" and as soon as the words were out of my mouth, i knew the slap in the face to the generosity of my teachers.  as if whether i taught or not had anything to do with my needs (although teaching is incredibly fulfilling), in that moment the needs of a student entered my thoughts.  3 days later my first student entered my studio.

Conger's painting is up for auction through the Blackwood Auctions in Essex on April 28.  estimate $400-$600.  wish I could.

sleep on sweet Prince.
deb.

The Clipboard file or from the Archives

drawing 101: when i teach beginners i journey through my roots, revisitng my old teachers as i transmit the knowledge so generously imparted to me. am always a little surprised by the struggle to learn triangulation, plotting, training the hand to follow the eye, keeping the eye on the object and off the picture plane, trusting the hand to follow. and using the point of the pencil instead of the smeary gray mass created when the hand has not yet learned to stay off the drawing surface.

but i like the side of the pencil, says the student. and i say there will be time enough to fool around with various ways of laying down the pencil mark. for now, just learn to see and keep your marks clear with understanding instead of playing with the ambivalent grays.