Statue of Liberty « Agostino Arts

Extra Spooky Ghoul by Laura

There just weren’t enough faces to paint this weekend. I have a very disappointed company of artists. Roberta feeling bad that she had no chance to paint some of the real scary stuff because both her events were “snowed out” — Laura frustrated that she couldn’t paint the Day of the Dead faces she’d been researching. At some of the events that did go on, only a handful of people showed up due to the extreme and surprising weather. In the limited opportunities, a bunch of the artists were good enough to take photos and send me some, a selection of which are here, including faces from Lorraine, Jennifer, Britt, Christine, Laura and one of our newest members, Colleen, who contributed a really cool skeleton design. I think Laura wins the “spookiest” award, with her “Extra Spooky Ghoul” face. Jennifer continues to forge ahead into new design concepts for all of us by continuing to apply the lessons we are learning from fine art paintings to new themes such as her “Gauguin Witch“. And Lorraine’s juxtaposition of the face of the Statue of Liberty with the New York skyline is something we can use all year round.

If you paint faces, take photos. You will learn more from looking at your own work than from any teacher. Retain the successes, learn from the failures. Try designs again, even the failures. And don’t be afraid to try something new. I am very happy that all the artists that work with me don’t just paint the same designs I do — i learn from them as much as they learn from me.

Yo-Yo Ma was on Colbert the other night, and he had some advice for all of us who do any art. Talking about the new group he’s working with, and their new album “The Goat Rodeo Sessions”, he said they all want “to do something very well”, but he also said they always wants to take risks, “to go to the edge where you see a better view”.