Art Class

A challenge yesterday was to take a square canvas, black background, a single color, one brush, a single emotion or feeling, and fifteen minutes. (I took an art lesson on zoom.) I kind of cheated because I had just heard “Can’t Let Go,” a new song sung by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. There’s something special about the mix of their voices.

I took that emotion you get when you can’t let go of something and compared it to Dexter and the visitor we had the last couple of nights: a strange looking beetle I called Henry that climbed up in the corner of my wall after figuring out that Dexter was going to remove a leg or six. Even with the lights out in the room, Henry did not move from his spot, and looked as if his head was facing the cat below.

Dexter kept vigil. The snow and the moon from outside gave a neat outline of his face, and his whiskers glowed. He stayed there long enough, and I looked long enough to study where the moonlight and snow light hit my cat. Such a great exercise: to think of that emotion, the song, a cat and a beetle, and then to know that the only thing I’m really painting in this situation is light. Doesn’t look like Dexter, but I think it captures a face that wants something.

Art teacher said we were going to add color later and discuss layering in acrylic painting. But he said that almost none of us will want to add to the painting after what we were able to accomplish in the fifteen minutes because “the simplest things are often the truest.”

Our directions were to assess whether or not that was true today: if we were ready to proceed forward and have conversations about adding color, then do not sign the canvas. If you could not possibly add anything to it, then sign the canvas. …. Now THAT was a great art class!