I didn't get a teaching I had interviewed for. A second place where I taught a class turns out not to have any openings this semester, though they hope I'll come sub. And a third job lurking in the horizon now seems highly unlikely to ever amount to anything.
I'm sitting in a noisy room surrounded by people, and feel my dream of a studio receding ever further into the mist. And as happen every time I get down, I get depressed over the fact that I have not been painting seriously in months. The ever present paradox: when we don't work, we have time, but no space, and little supplies.
Last year--with my full days of painting--seems more than just an ocean away.
To stop myself from getting too discouraged, I decided to make a list of some of the central elements I feel I got from school (other than the oh-so-desired-workspace), so that I can find ways to try to maintain them. This will also satisfy my inner-editor, who has been twitching in the back of my mind, complaining that blogging is disorderly, lacks structure, and encourages my mind to float in every direction. A compromise between my need to overflow in every direction, and the answering desire for order. Let's think of it as a kind of table-of-contents for the blog.
The missing components of art school:
- A consistent work environment
- A time structure--with deadlines.
- An artist community or people with whom to talk, from whom I could get feedback, and from whom I could be inspired.
- Learning to think about art. My initial training was in a rather anti-intellectual environment, where the focus was on technique, on continuous work, rather than the philosophical underpinnings of art, or the meta-poetic elements--the study of art as a language. I was surprised how much the academic element of the MFA enriched my world.
- Looking at art. Sometimes the greatest part of the New York Studio School was that it was in NY. I went around the galleries and museums at least once a week, and the sheer practice of looking is sometimes the greatest push power there is.
To be replaced....
Hey,
ReplyDeleteWhat about renting a studio in an artist community? Then you get a studio and a community! I have a space to paint, but I am missing the community portion. But I am working on it! Don't feel bad about not painting! I've accepted the fact that I paint sporadically for now.
An artist community would be perfect, if I could find one! The prices in areas of Jerusalem with a lot of artist--Nahlaot and Talpiot--have gotten quite high.
ReplyDeleteI am looking though!
And thanks for the support. It is important to remember that we all have down periods.
Where is your studio?