My Own Little Masterpiece

Last night, I went to my first painting class. It was really fun. For our first assignment, we learned how to make a fresco painting. We had to mix up Plaster of Paris, goop it onto a piece of fabric (you can see the edges of the fabric -- it was a thick black-and-white checkerboard type), etch the image into the plaster, and then paint over it. We were copying the hands of God and Adam from the Sistine Chapel:

I am no Michelangelo, no I am not. But I tried. My classmates are much more artistically talented than I am. As I looked around the room, I realized that my hands looked like Simpsons characters while everyone else's captured the shading, outlines, and finger placement from the original perfectly. But you know what? WHATEVS. I DON'T CARE.

I also learned as the night went on that many of the people in my class had taken multiple classes from the teacher before, so they had those handy things called Prior Knowledge and Personal Experience. (ahem, cheaters)

But I reminded myself that it's not a competition. I don't need to win a gold star for having the best hands. The fact that I drug my back-pained, depressed, freezing cold (it was like 9 degrees last night) a$$ to Omaha and attended the class was what was most important to me. Sitting in a classroom with 13 strangers and doodling in my kindergarten-ish way brought out a childlike joy inside of me. I really needed it. The people in my class looked to be early 30s through probably mid-50s (with the exception of one teenage boy), so it was nice to be surrounded by my peers. I fit right in. Sweet.

So the idea of the class is that we'll be able to inspect (very close-up) some of the famous paintings that are in Joslyn. Then, we'll go back to our classroom and try to copy the paintings. We'll learn history, style, and the process that was used for the originals. I usually don't like the idea of copying existing paintings. I prefer to make my own. But the teacher said we can also use the originals as inspiration for our own ideas, so I might veer off the original path from time to time. We'll see. I'm going to play it by ear.

After the class, I went to meet Spice at the watering hole. She had a laptop with her, so we started searching online for different classes we might take together or events we could go see. We came up with a ton of ideas for new adventures. I loved it.

I suppose it really is a snowball effect. You decide to Do One Thing and then another and another and another and suddenly you Have a Life. The key is to find that first thing to do, and then do it. I'm on my way. 

The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course. 

-- Michelangelo