As One Ends, Another Begins…

I find myself at a very long week’s end. My fourth course (each is divided into eight week sessions, so this is the end of a second semester) in grad school just finished. The course, Globalization, Art and Education, brought up a lot of topics of interest to me, though it also kept me so busy I haven’t had much time to process everything. I know it led me to research that I’m calling “Art and Artists That Exemplify the South” (check out here: http://www.scoop.it/t/made-southern-art), and that’s something I’d like to explore further. Will keep y’all posted. As for tonight, I’m taking a deep breath, enjoying a glass of wine, and starting a mini-marathon of Mad Men… all before I have to go to work tomorrow morning, and begin a new course for the first summer session. Yay!

A Drive to Watkinsville

Our Lovely Bed & Breakfast’s Porch

I spent this past weekend at a gorgeous bed and breakfast in Watkinsville, Georgia. It was about an hour and half drive from our home in north Atlanta, and on a perfectly sunny Saturday, I could not have asked for a better drive to the country. Well, about as country as it gets around Atlanta that is. Our windows were down, I could smell air that’s a fresh you don’t get in the city, and we actually passed fields with cattle. I hadn’t realized until that point how much I missed the country. Not that the past four and a half years in the city (and I’m just talking Atlanta, I’m aware it’s about the least urban “big” city in America) has citified me, but somewhere along the way I missed when a drive out in the country became foreign to me. However, our drive to Watkinsville was actually a good reminder of the research I’d been doing for class: artists or art exemplifying the South. Check out the ten artists I found here. As for the project that’s to come of this, it’s still a work in progress, but I am feeling inspiration that was much needed!

Where’s the Time?

My lesson for this week has me researching ten artists inspired by a topic that I’d like to investigate further. As I’ve sat for, oh, four-ish hours just this evening (and it’s only day three of this lesson), I truly am inspired. But to do what? I am completely enveloped by this online world that feeds me endless knowledge. Yes, it is a wonderful tool, but I’m also not jumping off the couch to make art (that’ll come with next week’s lesson), I just keep clicking. Where is the time for both? Or, more importantly, where is the balance? Hopefully, that’s something that I’ll learn, and in the mean time, if anyone has any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear. On the note of my research however, I’ve found some artists that I really love! I am investigating art influenced by your environment, and particularly that of the South. This guy has been my absolute favorite so far: Hollis Bennett. His compositions are great, some of his little details (things I didn’t even notice until the second time I went through his portfolio) really make his photographs, and his subjects, it’s like I know them. Seriously, I think I’ve met over half of them. It’s awesome art that you should check out.