Art supplies and teachers past
October is Art Month (it’s also a lot of other celebrations month, but let’s stick to this one). In that spirit, I have committed to completing an ATC (Artist Trading Card) for every day of the month. At the end of the month, I’ll have 31 small works of art. I will also have more experience and, I hope, more knowledge of techniques. So far, I have done a drawing in watercolor pencils, two collages, and a drawing with my new Pitt Artist’s Brush Pens (I got the Basic set).
The collages will be cool for more than just themselves; I used scraps from my current project. So they’re also sort of a “time capsule” of what I’m doing right now.
I also picked up a 12-set of oil pastels . I paid a little too much, but I feel good about supporting my local independent art store, in this case, Dakota Art Store. Their web site isn’t quite functional, and they don’t have the brand I bought there on the web site, but it is a terrific little store. Their prices are somewhat comparable to other larger stores, and they have a brilliant selection of artist’s papers. Matter of fact, since I’m notorious for shopping for bargains before I buy, I was thrilled to learn that the $35 I paid there for the Stephen Quiller porcelain palette is the cheapest price out there, bar none. Yay!
Plus, if I had to make the choice between paying shipping and paying sales tax (Seattle’s being 8.8%), I’ll shop locally and pay the sales tax and get it right-freaking-NOW, thank you very much.
Anyway, I haven’t used oil pastels in a million years, and I hope they are worth the fifteen bucks. Van Gogh is what’s called “student grade,” meaning art student, as opposed to scholastic (for kids) and artist’s quality (expensive). Since I will probably not “major” in oil pastels but just use them occasionally, this is perfect. I hate scholastic-grade stuff, and have gotten rid of most of it, except watercolor. I’m not ready to commit to watercolor yet, and that’s one of those things that you want to buy the best because it really makes a difference. So I’m stuck with a set of Reeves tubes I acquired for free and a cute little bitty porta-palette I got on eBay, which actually works just fine, but I’d rather have the good stuff, ya know? But five bucks beats $150 anytime.
Off the subject, but relevant, I was thinking about this last night, and I would like to take a few moments to thank some teachers whose lessons, still with me to this day, went far beyond the “three ‘Rs’.”
- Miss Thompson, my kindergarten teacher, who broke my heart when she became Mrs. Green. The most beautiful teacher in the world. I had a tremendous crush on her!
- Mrs. Wakefield, first grade. Every morning when we got to class, she’d left an 11″x 17″ piece of construction paper, folded into a folder that would contain the day’s work and be taken home. On the front, she’d drawn a couple of shapes with Magic Marker; like a line and a circle, a couple of squiggles, a square and a triangle, etc. We were to take our crayons and turn these shapes into a picture, anything we wanted. I loved this morning exercise so much, I made my dad (the artist) play it with me. We had so much fun doing that.
- Mrs. Marble, second grade, who was really kind to me when I was going through a lot of horrible stuff at home, including the death of my most beloved Grandma.
- Miss Boothby, third grade, who introduced me to Greek and Roman mythology and The Roundabouts’ Secret (language arts workbook with a terrific storyline). She also took us on some cool field trips, none of which I actually remember, but I remember they were cool. She had long blonde hair, and I loved her.
- Mrs. Morris, also third grade, my art teacher. She told us stories of the adventures of Spider Boy (which she made up on the spot) while we were working on art projects. I remember developing a love of tissue paper and the smell of paste (no, not like THAT), and I remember her pretty red hair and how sweet she was.
- Mrs. Blankinship, fourth grade, who made math tolerable.
- Mr. Stucki (STOO-key), fifth grade, who introduced to me the concept of evolution and started me on my l-o-o-n-g road of developing critical-thinking skills. He also let me be a T.A. in Spelling, since I aced that section early in the year.
- Sixth grade, Mrs. Greer, who was just an all-around nice woman, and a very encouraging teacher.
- Seventh grade, Mr. Sternberg, who recognized and accepted my advanced reading level, and didn’t treat me condescendingly. Also, Mr. Hawkins, science, who fed my love of astronomy and didn’t make me dissect a frog.
- Mr. West, eighth grade math, who turned me on to Henry Kuttner, Frederik Pohl, and Tolkien, and didn’t fail me when I knew damn well he should have.
Anyway, I want the universe to know I’m grateful to these wonderful people whose lives helped chart the course of mine. If you are a teacher, you have no idea how much your work shapes lives, and if you know a teacher, give him or her a really big hug from me today.
