Hey guys! This is Nicole again writing to introduce Gb!! He is the father of Ari and Iain, the boys in the previous posts, and he's married to Jennifer, who contributed to the write-ups on the boys. They are such a cool family! Jannell and I know Gb from our days at Hunter. I was going to mention that he was the best boss/mentor I've ever had as well as an awesome friend, but he told me to strike that. What he wanted me to put instead was "Jannell and I worked with Gb at Hunter which he readily proclaims as the most enjoyable years of his career." Oopsies! What just happened there?!
Fun fact about Gb: Building ukuleles is on his bucket list.
Fun fact about Gb: Building ukuleles is on his bucket list.
Here's what he had to say about his plein air experience:
"When Jannell sent out the invitation to engage "En Plein Air", I was
intrigued. It struck me that I had not tried to draw, much less paint,
outside, since college.
My first creative impulse was to try and be quite literal with the
French and construct an outside scene exclusively using planes; just
"planes in the air". I wondered, what would clouds or trees look like
if sketched as smaller planes? Would the planes be constrained to
quadrangles or triangles exclusively? Could organic projections
(leaves/trunks/branches/etc.) be normalized on to quadrangular planes?
How would perspective be communicated with potentially conflicting
planar vanishing points? I really wanted to do something with this...
Buildings by nature are "planes in the air" and it was fun to be aware
of this as I started to sketch. But the ironic, and perhaps most
disappointing thing about my sketching idea, was that I didn't sketch
what perhaps epitomizes the power and beauty of simple planes in the
air better than any other structure I could think of, the very arch I
was sitting under. It is made up exclusively of huge quadrangles
welded together into a beautifully organic arch with a triangular
cross section.
Could I have at least tried to capture the arch?! Did I really run out
of time? Or, did I simply lack commitment? If all I have to show for
the idea is the regret of not trying, then I hope any who read this
might be encouraged to seize a compelling opportunity to sketch before
it passes.
I'm committing to take my sketchbook with me more often... maybe even
back to St. Louis."
intrigued. It struck me that I had not tried to draw, much less paint,
outside, since college.
My first creative impulse was to try and be quite literal with the
French and construct an outside scene exclusively using planes; just
"planes in the air". I wondered, what would clouds or trees look like
if sketched as smaller planes? Would the planes be constrained to
quadrangles or triangles exclusively? Could organic projections
(leaves/trunks/branches/etc.) be normalized on to quadrangular planes?
How would perspective be communicated with potentially conflicting
planar vanishing points? I really wanted to do something with this...
Buildings by nature are "planes in the air" and it was fun to be aware
of this as I started to sketch. But the ironic, and perhaps most
disappointing thing about my sketching idea, was that I didn't sketch
what perhaps epitomizes the power and beauty of simple planes in the
air better than any other structure I could think of, the very arch I
was sitting under. It is made up exclusively of huge quadrangles
welded together into a beautifully organic arch with a triangular
cross section.
Could I have at least tried to capture the arch?! Did I really run out
of time? Or, did I simply lack commitment? If all I have to show for
the idea is the regret of not trying, then I hope any who read this
might be encouraged to seize a compelling opportunity to sketch before
it passes.
I'm committing to take my sketchbook with me more often... maybe even
back to St. Louis."
Looking at this pencil sketch-- on ivory paper with rounded edges, tucked into a classic black sketchbook-- gives me a feeling of timelessness. I imagine other people sitting in this spot, their eyes and brains sending similar information about these planes and facades to their fingertips... It's funny that cityscapes have such a static feeling when really, they and the elements surrounding them are changing.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of vision, have you guys heard about the 4th cone? Joe's been reading about them...in his book, the author suggested something like 12-15% of women may have this mutation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy