Figure Drawing at the Eliot School

Tuesday nights I teach Figure Drawing at the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain, MA. I share the class with another teacher, alternating weeks. It's an open, drop-in class, with a different model scheduled each week. Low-key, no pressure, very congenial atmosphere. The attendees are both professional and casual artists, some who come every week, others who come as the wind blows every once in a while.

This past Tuesday there was a man visiting from France, who spoke only French, but eh, the language of drawing is universal, right? He drew on the floor, all over the floor, laying his large sheets of paper down and sitting/kneeling/squatting with hand fulls of charcoal chunks. His figures were almost ghostly, wirey, sinewy. As if there was no skin, all muscle striations. It was kind of reminiscent of Anselm Kiefer or even Leonard Baskin. In any case, I was not only keen on his drawings but also his act of drawing. Very much like my own act of carving large woodcuts, very aggressively to get the overall large figure then settling in to more refined cuts to bring out slight details.

I love these moments of teaching when students are inspirational, reminding me to push my own boundaries and not fall into a trap of complacency with my art.

Art Adventures: Guitar Hero and Dinosaurs

Jlee accompanied me to Mass MoCA and check out his mad skills at the Kid's Space wall of guitars:




He also really loved the Sol Lewitt murals (impressed everyone with his knowledge of shapes and colors) and the Simon Starling sculptures (hard to stop a kid from touching shiny things...).



He insisted the sculpture was a dinosaur and was quick to tell me where the head, feet and tail were when I asked. So how could I argue?

Jenny Hearts Sol Lewitt

Ashamed to admit that this past weekend was my first venture out to Mass MoCA. Tsk tsk, I know. And yeah, I'd been meaning to go out there but never really felt an urgent need/desire/drive to go...until Sol Lewitt happened. I love LOVE Sol Lewitt's murals. Sometimes when I just happen upon one of his murals by chance, walking into the lobby of an office building or rounding the corner of a gallery in a museum, I get all slack jawed and glazy eyed. Isn't that how you get when you're in love? Or is it just me...?

Color Linoleum Printing at the Fitchburg Art Museum

This past Sunday I woke up early for an hour-long drive out to the Fitchburg Art Museum, where for over a year now I have been teaching one-day printmaking workshops. They have a lovely small press and a nice studio for water-based printing. Mostly suitable for relief printing and monoprinting but I hope to teach some intaglio classes there in the future. This class was on making multiple-color linoleum block prints. Certainly something that can be taught in a 6-hour workshop, but suffice it to say that there were some ambitious folks in the class! Here are some images of the works in progress:

Just Beat It and Fun at the DeCordova

I have decided that Lucia can be sporty woodsy learn-to-swim mama. I shall be arty music explorer adventure mommy.

This past weekend Jlee and I met up with our friends Ophelia and Zeke, a good college friend from Wellesley and her 8-yr old son, and headed to the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park for Summer Free Friday. Free admission! Music! Crafts! Fun! We didn't spend a lot of time indoors because it was such a nice day and perfect for walking around the sculpture park. The boys LOVED exploring the landscape and "exploring" the sculptures. I was very impressed that Zeke knew who John Wilson was. And of course everyone enjoyed the musical xylophone sculpture by Paul Matisse, cause my little man is so musical!



Then on Saturday morning, we got up early early to trek out to Spontaneous Celebrations in Jamaica Plain to drop in on the toddler drumming class taught by Sugarfoot. SO MUCH FUN! Ok here's the thing: Jackson is high energy. He wakes up alert and ready to go. So now our goal is to find activities that focus his energy and helps him learn something fun. Like music! He was so engaged and attentive to Sugarfoot, who was an awesome and fun teacher for the kids. And now I know how to make simple musical instruments for Jackson, out of buckets, sticks with one end padded, empty cans, duct tape and beans. Voila! Percussion!