Painting

So in my painting class this week, we are starting a set of new paintings that I am pretty excited about. The assignment is supposed to make us think about ways to make an unconventional portrait. We are to take a small mirror and set it on an easel or somewhere close and paint whatever part of our body is reflected in it. We are doing two different canvases- both 22”x28”. For one of them, I am thinking of standing on a mirror and painting that reflection. I also would like to just paint looking up my nose or something gross like that. This could be fun!

These ‘self portraits’ are in preparation for our final painting- an “unconventional nude” on a 30”x40” canvas. For that, our professor is planning to bring in a live model and have her pose for us in different ways and we are supposed to make it not follow any type of portraiture norms. Although that one is a little while from now, I like to think ahead of time what I might paint for the assignment anyway. When I was in high school, I did a neat painting of some vein-ey man feet on a 4-foot canvas and thoroughly loved the experience. I don’t have an obsession with feet, but they are just so much fun! (and not as difficult to paint as hands, in my opinion). Maybe for this assignment, I will do a close up on the model’s feet. Although that might be awkward, because to see enough detail to make a foot 3 feet long I will pretty much need to be sitting on top of the poor girl. We will see I guess!

Busy and FUN week. Oh, baby, oh

Hello world.

I guess this will be a long post. I have some cool things to talk about this week!! I think the best way to do this is to show you my schedule of busy-week-ness, with all sorts of great art activities. YEEEEEEE!

Monday (Oct. 12)- Saw the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra play. They are the fully professional orchestra for the city, and they play roughly 200 concerts a year. Normally, tickets are pretty pricey. But lucky me, I got to see them for free! (Yay, being a student). They played a concert in the big fancy auditorium on campus, and the audience was packed!

Tuesday: Class, homework, Sour Sitrus Society practice. Soon, I will be playing my clarinet at the Basketball games, in front the jam-packed dome full of basketball fans. Fun :)

Wednesday: “Pay what you can night” at the Syracuse Stage. The drama students are currently putting on the musical “Oklahoma!” and because I am a student, I got to name my price (kind of like with priceline, except they can’t tell me one dollar is too little!). It was an amazing show- those musical theater kids really can sing, dance and act their tails off!

Thursday- Opening party at XL Projects Gallery. I got paid to socialize with people involved with VPA while they snacked on guacamole and chips at the opening for “Faculty Show 2009”. I scored free snacks, a few connections, and I got to look at neat artwork all night! Later on Thursday night, I went over to my friend Mike’s house to sit in front of the fireplace (its getting cold here!) and eat smoked Salmon- his roommate is a serious fisherman and often feeds me fancy fish. Yum!!

And tonight? Friday. Once I am done with work at the XL Projects Gallery, I am going to cook dinner with another good friend. We both love to cook, and EAT. I am thinking of making either Pesto something or maybe Chicken with Capers (I discovered capers recently, because they are in TONS of the recipes that I have been wanting to try). I still don’t know what they even taste like though!! Cooking in my apartment is certainly an adventure.

Wow. Busy week! But at least it was full of fun arty things, and not being bored in front of the Tele!

Professors kick major rear-end

So a few weeks ago, I realized something that made me happy to be at Syracuse. I have some very accomplished professors. The professor for my one art history class (17^th c. Dutch Painters) assigned a reading from a book. As I searched for the reading online, I noticed that the author was my professor (Wayne Franits)! I continued looking and discovered roughly ten books that he has published (mostly on Dutch painting in the later half of the millennium). And these were not BS books either- they were published by Cambridge University Press. Pretty impressive if you ask me! I feel a privileged to be able to listen to his lectures twice a week. Knowing about the books made me realize that this man is so much more intelligent than I had thought. It is easy to fake knowing about a topic, but he has spent his entire life researching this subject that I now am getting to learn all of that directly from him! (be a sponge, Liz, be a sponge!)

So if that was not enough to make me feel satisfied with the instruction that I am getting out of my tuition money, I realized another professor of mine is also highly accomplished. Short story, my painting class is being taught by Jerome Witkin, who the Metropolitain Museum of Art has bought paintings from. Seriously. The biggest art museum in the entire United States sought my professor out and gave him money for his work! And while the man is a little old and quiet, I am listening to every word he says and trying every technique he recommends.

So I guess this blog really sounds like an advertisement for the university… But keep in mind- I am writing this on a completely voluntary basis, and I can write about anything I want. I could write about how much I love to eat peanut butter sandwiches in the ‘sculpture garden’, or how the one bathroom in Shaffer (the main art building here) really smells. But I am writing what is on my mind, and I am thinking that I love Syracuse!

Liz? Liz who?!

So here is this blog thing, awaiting its turn to be written…

A little about me:

I am a silly AND serious sophomore in the History of Art program in VPA. I am also minoring in General Business in Syracuse’s Whitman School of Management. When people ask me where I am from I usually say “Podunk nowhere”, but I am actually from a small town in western NY: Bath, NY. It is near Corning (home to the awesome Corning Museum of Glass). I graduated with a class of 130 and had a fantastic small town/ family upbringing, but now I LOVE living in a “city”. I came to Syracuse last year to study Surface Pattern Design, but I am one of those people that changes their mind about what they will do every other week, so I wasn’t positive. While studying for finals in my first semester I had an amazing revelation. I was ENJOYING studying for my “History of 20^th C. Art” exam! I ended up switching my major to History of Art in the college of Visual and Performing Arts. So far, it has been a rewarding choice. What will I do with this degree, you say? Art history here is a very flexible program, which means I do not have to be held down to one type of art history, or one career path. In my range of ideal careers, I have thought about working in an art gallery, at a museum or (recently) a non-profit arts center. I am personally interested in managing/ owning an art gallery because of the business side of things. I think I would enjoy having the responsibility to make sure that a gallery stayed afloat while showcasing beautiful artwork! I currently work as a “gallery attendant” for an art gallery in downtown Syracuse that is run by the college - XL Projects). More about that in another post sometime. I also am very involved with a few groups on campus, mainly Alpha Phi Omega though. It is a co-ed service fraternity, and together we do thousands of service hours every semester. (Its also a BLAST because the people are so much fun!). In the winter, I play clarinet for the basketball pep band (Sour Sitrus Society) and I also swim with the SU club swim team from time to time.

So that’s a bit about what I do at Syracuse!

Aloha,

Liz