Sunday, March 15, 2009

Surprises

Making art is always full of wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) surprises. In my dual roles of student (in the MFA program at CSUF) and teacher (of Beginning Drawing, also at CSUF) I find that the surprises are very different.

I really, really love to look at the solutions my students come up with when given an assignment. Despite the fact that it is called a beginning class, they bring incredibly sophisticated, fresh, innovative, and exciting ideas to the page. I am always inspired and get excited all over again about the limitless possibilities and emotional connections with drawing.

And then there is my other perspective: student (me!) learning to master a new skill. This time it was to create a pop-up (my attempt above). Surprise: simple name, deceivingly complex construct. Challenging hardly describes the learning process for this project. Hats off to pros Robert Sabuda, Matthew Reinhart, and David Carter. I will continue to drool over your creations but no longer feel I have to try it myself!

3 comments:

"KAT" {for short} said...

are you doing pop up in the beginning drawing class? if so, that's awesome! :) hope everything's going well. nice pop-up! yours?

if you're interested, got another custom art show in LA. @ Munky King (designer toy shop). There's going to be tons of custom artists and our toys will be on sale.

http://munkyking.com/gallery_events.php?id=81&year=

take care Pat,
kat :)

Patricia Cantor said...

Hi Kat,
Good to hear from you! Sorry for the confusion - the beginning drawing class is not doing pop-ups. That class is deep into the perspective module. Fun! And, yes, that's my attempt at a pop-up.

Will your work be at Munky King? Thanks for the heads up.

Take care,
Pat

cathyjune said...

love your pop-up! If there was any tension during the process it's invisible in the final product... it's delightful!