School's Out For Summer
Tonight I put the final touches on my spring semester grades and finished submitting then to the school's computer. All four classes are done, so in the coming days I will be getting back to making art. But as I close the books on this semester (literally) it occurred to me that this time of year also marks a few artistic milestones for me. I don't have exact dates to share, just a link to this time of year.
At my undergrad school students weren't allowed to declare a major until the spring semester of their sophomore year. As that moment approached for me, I had a lot to consider. I had always assumed that I would end up in some kind of science related field, but my grades in those classes to that point were not too promising. Each department gave presentations as to what would be expected for declared majors and I went to a bunch of them, including the one for interdisciplinary (create your own). In the end, I went with the subject where I was putting in the most time and had the most interest- fine art. That fateful decision came 25 years ago, give or take a month or two.
As part of the effort to clean out my parents' house, a few months ago I picked up piles of used stretcher bars- wooden bars with ends designed to fit together to make sort of a frame. In my painting days, I would then stretch unprimed canvas over the bars and staple them taught over the frames. Years ago I removed a lot of old canvases from the stretchers and the wood pieces were stored in the garage. I brought them down the shore, giving some to Molly to use as quick silkscreen frames. The rest were down in the basement of my former residence, but I put them in the back of my car today, so I can drop them off in Belmar tomorrow for the BAC art materials garage sale this weekend. Having discovered woodcut printmaking, I had walked away from painting halfway through my time at Montclair State, but my graduation committee demanded one more painting for my final exhibition, so sometime in the spring of 1992 I made one more, which is the last oil on canvas I did. So this past semester marks 20 years since the end of my painting career.
The next big art anniversary will be coming up in the fall, but I'll save that story until then.
At my undergrad school students weren't allowed to declare a major until the spring semester of their sophomore year. As that moment approached for me, I had a lot to consider. I had always assumed that I would end up in some kind of science related field, but my grades in those classes to that point were not too promising. Each department gave presentations as to what would be expected for declared majors and I went to a bunch of them, including the one for interdisciplinary (create your own). In the end, I went with the subject where I was putting in the most time and had the most interest- fine art. That fateful decision came 25 years ago, give or take a month or two.
As part of the effort to clean out my parents' house, a few months ago I picked up piles of used stretcher bars- wooden bars with ends designed to fit together to make sort of a frame. In my painting days, I would then stretch unprimed canvas over the bars and staple them taught over the frames. Years ago I removed a lot of old canvases from the stretchers and the wood pieces were stored in the garage. I brought them down the shore, giving some to Molly to use as quick silkscreen frames. The rest were down in the basement of my former residence, but I put them in the back of my car today, so I can drop them off in Belmar tomorrow for the BAC art materials garage sale this weekend. Having discovered woodcut printmaking, I had walked away from painting halfway through my time at Montclair State, but my graduation committee demanded one more painting for my final exhibition, so sometime in the spring of 1992 I made one more, which is the last oil on canvas I did. So this past semester marks 20 years since the end of my painting career.
The next big art anniversary will be coming up in the fall, but I'll save that story until then.
posted by arrabbiata at 10:18 PM
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