Struggles, ideas, and a few more struggles...

     I want to start off by saying that I really enjoyed speaking with Kristina Arnold last week. Not only is she a really awesome lady, but she and I share a lot of common interests when it comes to our love of biology and our constant need to switch between 2D and 3D platforms. Though my time with her was short, she was able to provide me with a lot of insight and direction - she even recommended several artists who I was able to really relate to, including a lady who photographs museum dioramas from around the world. 

     Creatively, this past week has been a real struggle for me. I have been working on a large, 2' x 4' birch wood panel where the plan is to incorporate several different animal species into a single harmonious composition. While I've so far only been able to get a portion of the elk done, I'm really starting to struggle with certain portions of its head and antlers. The colors in the reference photo keep changing each time that I look at them, and its preventing me from really continuing. On one hand, I'm ready to scrap the painting as a whole and start off new, but on the other, I'm really set on getting the piece finished and working around the struggles with the color palette. It's simply a few portions of the elk that are really tough. I usually have a hard time distinguishing between the need to let go of a work, versus gathering up the courage to push through the parts that are difficult. I'm very indecisive that way. I tend to save things that I know I will never complete because I still have that odd kind of attachment to them. Lawrence Argent once told me that letting go does not always mean giving up... it simply signifies acknowledging that you are ready to move forward and march toward progress - even if it means scrapping the model you've been working on for the past year. 

     At any rate, I have realized that regardless of the situation, its preventing me from really getting the amount of work done that I expect of myself this quarter. In light of this, I have decided to brush it aside for a few days and begin fresh on a new panel with an entirely different composition in the hopes that taking myself away from the image I've been staring at will bring about a fresh "eye" in the upcoming week. At this point, I will still plan to return to the elk and finish it, but this next painting will give me a bit of a visual break and hopefully allow me to return to this piece much more invigorated and excited.

     In other news, those of you who stopped by my studio this week may have noticed a new resident that is literally calling my corner home. I knew that any space I was going to work in just wasn't complete without some sort of pet to share it with. After much debate, I went out on Friday and adopted a red eared slider turtle! I have decided to name him Akeley after Carl Akeley - one of the first conservationists of the early 20th century and the man responsible for inventing the technique by which animals are mounted and displayed in museum dioramas. Akeley will serve to keep me as well as each and every one of you company as the quarter goes on. He will also be serving as a live model for me in a future painting that I hope to get going sometime in the next two weeks or so.