Week 2: Feeling Like an Artist Again

As mentioned in my last (brief) post, I started to feel like an artist again this week.  In grad school, I had papers to write and philosophers to research and presentations to give and all that, but I also had hours in the studio to spend getting really lost in a painting.  I love to watch movies while I paint, and spent a lot of time wandering the stacks at the library finding new things to see.  This week I felt like I was back - back to the library, back to the studio, back to being a real, full-time artist!  

It was glorious.

As well as working on illustrations for the children's book my brother wrote, I'm working on a series of paintings based on photos I took at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.  Greenfield Village is one of my favorite places to spend a day (or an afternoon, or any time at all!).  Historic (Old-Timey!) baseball games on Saturdays are the best, and the village is beautiful, with all of the old buildings, the carriages, the Model Ts, the people in period dress, etc. 

One theme that tends to show up a lot in my work is close-ups of objects or places.  I like to see the details that make up what we see, including in museums and historic places, and have previously done a series based on photos taken at The Henry Ford Museum (click here to see that series).  It's great to be working on a series again, and this one in particular brings back wonderful, warm memories of time spent at one of my favorite places.

The photos below aren't the best - taken quickly in the studio yesterday - but they show some of the progress that I'm making.  It's slow, but it's fun to see the step-by-step process of the paintings as I add layer after layer of paint.  I'll add more photos as I go (there are four other paintings I'm working on now, too - it allows me to keep working - while one is drying, I can pull out another) as well as, of course, the finished pieces!