February 3, 2006

School and Money stuff.

This semester is proving difficult.

First, the money issues. I got a scholarship last semester, for the year. I read the conditions, and I didn't see anything that said I had to be a full time student to get it this semester. (Obviously, I missed said disclaimer) So, because I am not full time, (I only need 3 more classes) I missed out on the $650. Meaning it would have been cheaper if I had taken another class. :P So, because of that and the fact that I did not take out enough in loand because I thought it would be covered, I owe $450 that I don't have. By the 8th. I have $200, and I have overdraft protection so I can pay it, but it sucks, still.

Anyway. I'm in 2 art history classes along with art history, and they are kicking my butt. Lots of writing, lots of reading, and very little time.

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Posted by Karin Dalziel on February 3, 2006 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 8, 2006

Place

Does place matter? I think a lot about place. I think- if I'm unhappy here, will anywhere else be any different?

But really, I'm not UNhappy here. I'm just not happy here. I'm ok.

I want to be better than ok.

Anyway, back to the original question- does place really matter? I guess it depends on who you ask and what you want out of life. Ask a lot of the people around here and they will say no, it's not important. For them it may not be. Lincoln certainly provides the necessities- food, water, (inexpensive) shelter, football, bars... I guess the problem here is that what it provides I don't really want. Don't get me wrong, there's an art scene here, but it's stilted. Most of the (semi) famous artists are here because they teach here. Pretty much any big name lecturers are brought in by the school. A lot of this stuff is open to the public, but it kind of makes you feel like you're always in school.

So what do I want? A few things, really. I want natural beauty. I want to be able to hike, because I love it. I would like to be able to visit the ocean and the mountains, etc. Some people around here will go on and on about how beautiful it is, and it can be pretty, but mostly it's boring. There's a reason that people don't stop here when going down I-80.

I want things to do. By things to do, I don't mean going to movies, football games, or bars. I went to a talk by an art critic tonight, which was amazing. But events like this are few and far between. In bigger cities, they are weekly. Nightly even.

Mostly, I want a larger pool to draw friends from. I know this sounds weird, but I have found few people here I like, let alone really connect with. I don't know if it's the place, of if there are just less people here and so less chances to make a connection.

Anyway. I've gone back and forth about this for a while. Years even. I tell myself- it shouldn't matter- you can live in a cave somewhere and make paintings. It does matter, though. I realize that what I need is a community- isolation works for some, but not for everyone. And while I love my husband, I don't trust him to give me an honest opinion about my work. He can't be objective about it, just like I can't be objective about his work.

Anyway, I think this is why I'm turning to landscapes lately. I kind of hate it, because I don't think of myself as a landscape painter. It's weird, you can be a portrait painter and also do still lifes, but if you're a landscape painter, you do landscapes, and that's it. that's how it seems, anyway. I don't know that I want to paint exclusively landscapes, but for now, it's following my train of though nicely.

Rambled too much and need to study for a test- blah.

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Posted by Karin Dalziel on February 8, 2006 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 23, 2006

Exhibition: Saving Faces

I went to see an exhibit at University of Omaha, Nebraska today called "Saving Faces." Although it was a bit depressing, not to mention sad, it was very interesting. The exhibit consisted of portraits of patients who received some type of facial reconstruction before, after, and during the procedures. The "during" pictures were, understandably bloody and gory, but, to me, not nearly as affecting as many of the before and after photos, or the stories that accompanied the paintings. All of the portraits were painted on plain colored backgrounds- yellow, teal, pink, or red. The teal and pink colors especially looked like they could be hospital walls. With nothing to distract you in the background, all you had to look at was the face.

The show wouldn't have worked, I think, if it were photos. I think that by now, with the internet and surgery shows on TV, many if not most of us have seen pretty graphic photos of surgery or facial deformity. With a photo, I have the tendency to look and then look away- it's disturbing because it is so very real. When it is painted, though, I find myself doing what I do with all paintings- I want to look at the how of it, what colors did he use? how did he apply the paint? This process forced me to step back from the often gruesome subject matter and start with something other than a knee jerk revulsion.

One of the interesting aspects of the show was the framing- one series in particular was painted on square canvases, but the top and the bottom were bands of bright red, making the picture area rectangular. I wonder about this choice, as well as the choice to make all the backgrounds one solid color. I also wonder about the fact that most pictures are fairly opaque, with little drawing showing, but some paintings show the preliminary drawings under thin layers of paint. Some of the paintings (the formal portraits) definitely looked like they were painted from life, while others looked like they were painted from photographs, and it was interesting to see this difference.

Here's some links for info on the project and the artist:

www.smd.qmul.ac.uk/omfs/gilbert.htm

http://www.savingfaces.co.uk/about_us/people/mark_gilbert.htm

Posted by Karin Dalziel on February 23, 2006 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)