Michael Pearce

Some days are marked by the achievement of great success in the studio, while others are days that lay the ground for great things in the future. Then there are days like today, when I achieved nothing outstanding, but all of it was completely necessary. In terms of my productive life this day was the equivalent of picking up the groceries, or vacuuming the living room, important to keep the daily life of the studio going, but almost invisible in its impact.

We held a very productive and encouraging meeting of our faculty, got our Department Assistants working, picked up more gold leaf at the sign painters’ store, moved the pieces of the theatre that were cut a few days ago to the studio and worked on a description of the exhibit that’s evermore rapidly approaching.

By the time lunchtime came around I was feeling quite frustrated, but this is a symptom of the change that the new semester brings. During the summer I had the luxury of being in the studio every day, now I must get back to earth a little and remember that that luxury comes only if I effectively lead the art department. Gradually things will even out and the semester’s routine will establish itself and become normal.

Michael Stasinos called me from Pacific Lutheran University and told me that we are going to be able to go ahead with an exchange of exhibits that I recently proposed to him. The plan is that he’ll do an exhibit of his work at the Kwan Fong, and I’ll have a show at the PLU gallery in the following month. I hope to encourage and develop the relationship between the two Universities and have students visit for exchange semesters.

I’ve added a page on the sidebar to the right which is simply a copy of the beginning of the first chapter of Vitruvius’ “Ten Books of Architecture”, in which he describes the proportions of the body and face in simple terms. For artists these fundamental comparisons are incredibly useful, worth committing to memory, in fact, because although there is much variety of different types of human bodies the model Vitruvius describes is roughly true, so we can check our drawings by using these simple measurements.

Vitruvius’ description of the proportions of the human body is posted here. Because there are a variety of translations of the books that are out of their copyright protection, the complete text of Vitruvius is available in a multitude of bindings on Amazon. It’s worth reading the whole thing, if only for the insight it gives into classical architecture and the influence it has had on Western civilization. Very cool.

If you’re wondering where the painting posts are, so am I. I haven’t had any opportunity to get to the studio since that Sunday afternoon of gilding slipped by. School semester began today, so everything has gone barmy trying to get students into their proper classes, figure out details that have escaped me, making sure the art department faculty have everything they need to be effective and happy in their studios, and getting ready for a reception for Duncan’s exhibit tomorrow. (Seven o’clock Thursday evening, come on over to the Kwan Fong Gallery at CLU… Eat, drink and enjoy the art.)

Tomorrow morning though, I have studio time for myself, and plan to get gold onto a pile of panels. I might even be able to get started on the geomantic man, with some luck. He needs a little more work to finish him off. I keep imagining him with a sun for a face, so I think I need to look at how his face might work if it were a rich golden yellow.

It’s frustrating to have so little time to prepare the work for the show, but to be unable to get into the studio to do it.