End of the week potpourri...

Did I mention that those smarmy old men were back at the entrance to our little college, mini-Bibles in hand, trying to dispense the natural antidote to education? I guess I missed them last semester because I actually parked on campus, and they are not allowed to do that there, just on the streets around us. These men could just as easily be flashers, in my opinion. On one hand, it must be nice to feel so right about something you want everyone else to have it, too. On the other, it is even nicer to know that everyone else might not need it like you do. Whatever.

I made several drawings in my drawing class, little ones. And I like most of them. We drew our hands again, and I felt like a veteran at this exercise. I did a faithful hommage to Garfield from the daily comics. And I drew a pony, a trout, a chimera and a doll. Kevin says I have a "strong" hand, which means all my drawings are rendered pretty dark, even with the HB pencil, the hardest one we use. Well, why mess around? This is supposed to be fun. Enthusiasm, that's my middle name.

I figured out how to solve for x, all by myself! I am used to the teacher going over how to do the homework before we do it. This teacher, dear as he is, lets us twist in the wind a little, and try to figure it out ourselves before divulging all those neat little tricks he has up his sleeve. I kind of like that. I like thinking my way through things. Besides, my new bud says I can find everything I need online. Well, duh.

In Art History, we learned all about the Trecento, the sensibly named Italian 1300's which most of us know as the 14th Century. This was the precursor of the Renaissance, and the beginning of amazing progress in art (as well as a lot of other pursuits). What fun we are having with all these slides of altarpieces. I wish I had known some of this when I was there, at the Uffizi and the Vatican. Oh, well. Really good reason to return!

And I am making this painting, all in earth tones of yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw umber, black and white. Surprise! You can make green, blue, pink, and orange with those pigments. Mine is different from everyone else's. Well, they are all really different. And we saw this video of Milton Resnick' process, which seemed to be swear a lot, slap paint from can on huge canvas, then drop brush wherever, so it dries up all stuck together with paint, then throw it away. He did make some amazing works in this process, impasto paintings with inches of paint dried onto the canvas, very abstract and primitive.

And throughout this process, I am still sick. I got this cold, which is now a tight dry cough and a headache, some sneezing, and could be headed for laryngitis if I am not careful. Advice from friends in the know say it lasts three weeks. Not if I can help it. I'm off to bed with my expectorant, nighttime cold capsules, and a bag of sugar-free coughdrops.