On the easel...

[GKreindler]

Thanks Tony and Mike. I really appreciate all of you taking time out of your day to respond to the latest one.

Tony, I'm honored to be behind Rembrandt on your list, but if that's the case, then I insist that I be waaaaaaaaaaay far back. I couldn't wash that man's brushes.

Regarding teaching, I think if anyone was to put students under my wing, I'd be pretty scared of the results. It's usually really hard for me to verbalize and articulate things in general (those of you who know me in person know exactly what I'm talkin' about), so I couldn't even imagine how crazy I might sound if I was talking to a bunch of students (of any age, really).

But in all seriousness, I'm really glad I'm taking this class. It's being taught by a dear friend and former professor, Peter Fiore. About 90% of what I know about painting is because of him. His class is all about understanding light and color, and is actually one that I took when I was an undergrad (a few times, actually). If I hadn't, I can't even imagine where I would be now. And here we are, ten years after the fact, and I think I can approach his concepts more maturely, and get into the minutia that I couldn't really make sense of when I was 20. At the same time, he's been painting another 10 years as well, so I'm really able to take advantage of his breadth of knowledge. The stuff I've been learning has been REALLY helpful so far, and I certainly hope my work will improve because of it, even though I still get frustrated all of the time. This is gonna sound really flowery, but I've found that painting is a lot like the Lernaean Hydra, in that once a particular visual problem is solved, you become aware of at least two more.

And I guess that's what one of the best and worst thing about painting is: there's no ceiling as to how much you can learn or push yourself.

All I know is that after a full day of it, my head really hurts.