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A collection of paintings, drawings and non sequiturs. Thanks for looking!

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Reading the New Yorker

Last night, or I should say very early this morning, in a bout of sleeplessness I reached for the New Yorker by my bed. The title of a particular article peaked my interest: What I Learned When I Learned How to Draw

In the first paragraph, a scene is set at a dinner party, where the author of the article, Adam Gopnik, is seated across the table from another guest, who after a brief conversation reluctantly agrees to teach Gopnik how to draw; this guest is none other than the man who taught ME how to draw at the Grand Central Academy - Jacob Collins.

There is now just one degree of separation between Adam Gopnik and me;)

Written from the perspective of an art critic (and one who commonly writes on the activities of the contemporary art scene, not on learning how to draw representationally) this article sheds a curious perspective on all things 'Traditional Realism Revival".

Jacob Collins tries to teach Gopnik how to draw, and many of the lessons Jacob teaches him are eerily familiar. I thought back to my own Drawing Intensive class (taken in the summer of '09), and realized just how often I draw (pun intended) on the lessons I took away from that experience. Some of these lessons are practical in application, but most just propel me further into the world of the impractical, impossible, 'old fashioned' and overlooked.

And I am endlessly thankful for these lessons...


And this is just a quick snapshot I took of Jacob, during my Drawing class in the summer of 2009 at the Grand Central Academy.


Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Thanks!

A


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Banner Year!!

This year I had the great pleasure of being involved in a cool project with Edmonton's talented poet laureate, Rollie Pemberton and 3 other visual artists: Nikelas Johnson, Tim Rechner and Pearl Rachinsky.

Poetry meets imagery meets the streets of the city of Edmonton.

Please check out some of the Press coverage, and learn a little bit more about the project!

You can also visit Latitude's 53 Blog, where a quick post appears on my involvement with the project. This will give you a chance to catch up on some of the other art action taking place in Edmonton.

And if you are in Edmonton, and find yourself itching for a stroll through the city's Downtown core please look up at the light posts on Jasper Ave, 104th Street and Rice Howard Way and you will see some of my work, as well as the work of the other artists who collaborated with words and light posts!

Happy summer,

A