Hey! This is Marge. I’ll be posting comics here every Saturday afternoon for y’all.
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Paint Me (Upside Down) Like One of Your French Girls
Do you remember when you were young and played on the monkey bars? When you were overcome with super strength and curiosity turned you upside down? The backs of your knees hinged over the metal poles and your body trusted itself to unfold and dangle. The wood chips became your ceiling, the clouds a fluffy carpet. Your world and perspective had changed so much and yet, you were still you.
On Wednesday, I took the first class of a term of an Oil Painting course at the Ann Arbor Art Center, a medium I’ve never worked with before. In fact, I’ve never had any technical training on painting at all. I’ve always been a more splat and spread sort myself. But like all second-semester seniors who want to absorb the most out of this college life as I can get, I decided to buck up and challenge myself, destress after classes, and perhaps come away with a framable piece of art.
The first exercise was to use our paints to copy a black and white photograph of a young girl. The girl was half in shadow, save for a little triangle of light where her eye peeked through. We also were not using any water with our paints, which meant that we would have to cake a lot of paint on the canvas because it dried so quickly. And things kept getting more interesting. “Now turn the photograph upside down,” our instructor, Claudia, said.
Suddenly, the face I had just seen before disappeared. Where her shadowy eye had been was now just an imprint of a hollowed out triangle (think pirate eye patch with a hole in the center). There was a slice of light that cut through what had been the girl’s neck. Where had that been before? To the left of her visible eye was a curvaceous bump: the indent where the skull shapes the eye bone. Where did her nose go? All I could see was a black dot in the center of the face. Not only was the model photograph upside down, we were going to paint to match this upside down figure. Claudia told us, “Don’t think of it as a face. Take each part of the photograph as its own shape. What’s connected? Where is the white space? Think tonally – is this dark or light?” This was easier since we were only using one color. You either painted a section of canvas or left it alone. But, still, this was no walk in the park for a beginner like me.
Now take your computer and flip it (or do a handstand and crane your neck). I suppose that my painting has a slight haunting Victorian schoolgirl look to it, but I walked away from class quite proud. Somehow, I had created this person on the paper in front of me. The ultramarine hue was beautiful and I hope to use it much more in the class. The girl’s visible eye turned out really well, as did her lips. I know there is much more to work on, technique-wise, but I think the most important lesson is to practice perspective. Keep challenging everything that you see. An eye isn’t just an eye. It’s a line connected to another line that doesn’t touch but curves around and loops back. A shadow isn’t just a dark spot; it’s a locus of contrast, of contact, of substance. I expect that I’m going to walk away from this painting term with a lot more on my palette than just a few still lifes.
Maybe it’s time for a trip down to the local monkey bars to get some more practice on perspective.
Thanks.
You know when you want to thank someone, but you know that nothing that you can say can totally, wholly, and accurately represent the true appreciation and gratitude that you feel inside? It’s that darn dilemma that is similar to the feeling of love, where no matter what words come out, there are about a hundred more that you could pile on top…but you can’t because that would just be a little extreme.
So what can you do?
I recently had an experience that was so much more meaningful to me than I had ever been expecting. As a runner-up for the Current Magazine’s 2015 Fiction and Poetry Contest, I was invited to read my poem live at the Arbor Brewing Company. I’ve done readings before, and as much as I love them, this one didn’t seem like it would be any different. I had been chosen as one out of 40 submissions to read, but on a Wednesday night? Who would come? My mom skipped a book club meeting to accompany me to the bar, and there I saw three of my friends, drenched in rain after the downpour, who had braved the weather and walked across campus to watch me read! They had cut a box out of their schedule that night, wrote in Sharpie “Go to Cammie’s reading,” they thought that this night was special enough to take an hour to not do homework, to not attend club meetings, to cheer for their friend, and that touched me more than they will ever know.
And then the surprise that hit me even more. When my bosses at University Towers (I’m the Community Assistant there) and co-worker walked through the door. I had told them I was performing that night, just making small talk during my shift. But they came, they clapped, they cheered, they celebrated the night with me. To think that they cared enough about me to support me in my achievements that they would spend two hours after a long day at work was unbelievably kind.
It was at that point that I realized that I had done something to be proud of. And for some silly reason, it took all of these wonderful people in my life to remind me to appreciate this success and congratulate myself.
The first thing I did to thank them was to write to each person individually and tell them, as graciously as I could, that I was honored to have them as a friend. Sometimes, to have a written down tangible historical note, rather than a simple vocally-transmitted message, really makes an impact. It’s always great to hear a compliment, but to receive a letter where someone took the time to sit down and think about all the ways that they love you is something that they will be able to hold on to for a very long time.
So, that’s my advice if you’re looking for ways to show your appreciation for someone: write a thank you note (it doesn’t have to be for any particular occasion – just a “I’m thinking of you and you rock. Here’s why…” type of thing); support them back (if they have an event or show or award presentation, go cheer them on); find little ways of being kind to them (tell them good luck before their exam, ask them about their new house, send them a box of tissues and can of soup if they’re sick – the little things always add up).
Find little pockets of gratitude everywhere you can. You’ll find that you will be a much happier and satisfied person when you can appreciate even the things you don’t know how or who to thank.
Like seeing the first snow fall on red berries! Take a photo – capturing that moment is remembering the beauty, which in turn is a way of remembering to be grateful.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating. Happy everything to everyone else and have something with cinnamon in it for me!
Write in the comments below: what’s something you’re thankful for?
