I have been called on the carpet by Shavonne, so I guess I must update my blog.

I signed up for a drawing class at Salt Lake Community College this fall, and I am enjoying it immensely. I go for 2 1/2 hours every Monday and Wednesday. I have already learned so much more than I ever knew about drawing and I can’t believe I have waited this long to do it. I look back on all the drawings I have done in the past, and I admire how hard I worked on them when I knew so little about it. I can’t get over the fact that I would beat myself up for not being able to draw from real life. I would tell myself that I wasn’t a “real” artist because I could really only do “copies” of other drawings. Now I know that copying other drawings is a valuable and necessary skill all by itself, and doing drawings from “real” life just takes knowing five principles that anyone can be taught. The rest is just practice. Every person has a “right” hemisphere in his or her brain that is specialized for visual and spatial comprehension, and a big step in being able to draw things that look real is getting your “left” brain to take a back seat – to just get out of the way, so to speak. I am learning about edges, spaces, relationships, lights and shadows. I am also reading a book about Vincent van Gogh for a research paper that I have to write, and I am fascinated by his life. It is even a bit comforting to discover that he didn’t know he was an artist for most of his life. He tried several trades, including becoming a minister, before he decided he was an artist, and then he started with drawing before he ever became a painter. And I guess he never could have imagined that his paintings would become so valuable and coveted. My teacher asked me one night after class, “So, did you know you were an artist when you signed up for this class?” I was flattered by the way she asked the question – like she thought I was an artist and wanted to know if I thought so, too. Anyway, I am excited about drawing and using the techniques I am learning. If there were a way that I could put some of my drawings on my blog for you to see, I would do it. Maybe Chelsee can take some pictures of them to post.