The Art Students League is Richardsonian, referring to H.H. Richardson, prominent early 20th Century architect who had a big influence, though most of his actual projects are in the east (the state asylum building near the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, for example).

I'm working at the University of Denver bookstore in their receiving department. It's for all of October; the regular guy is taking family leave for his new child. They let me take Tuesdays off so I can teach the class, and I usually stay after so I can work on my own stuff. It makes for a nice break, and keeps the mental thread going until I can have my weekdays back.

I'm tracking my current thread of work over on my Facebook Artist Page, if you want to see how it's going. I'm hoping to progress to larger and larger works by spring.

Catching Up

The sun has gotten gold-tinged, the temps have plunged into the 80's. I had a week recently to try and collect my thoughts after a long brutally hot summer, and I'm thinking life is good. Last year at this time, things didn't seem quite so sanguine. I'd had an unprecedented run of shows with no sales at all, in places which made expenses hard to control. I contemplated getting job.

Over a long winter spent reading on the couch and refining my pot bean recipe, I talked my self into believing that the continual scrounging for sales and workshop participants, the legwork put in hunting down small payments and cutting expenses; the hours spent trying to figure out inexplicable Facebook and Blogger apps; were all part of the fun. I did finally find a very flexible temporary job in a college bookstore (which also figures into the recent lack of posts). I've now punched the clock just often enough to remind me that I was right to keep faith. Several shows in a row have paid for themselves, I'm catching up on bills, and despite what the political fear mongers say, things are getting slowly better.

This year the sales are up and the expenses down ( I stayed closer to home). The fall workshop at the Art Student's League is underway, and with seven students feels more relaxed than the preceding two classes, with 8 and 10. Indian summer feels like what summer, and so-called retirement is all about: meeting and enjoying both old and new friends. I put in some time with my favorite comedic intellectuals at Buntport Theatre, caught a couple of Rapids games, and did a late night at a friend's rock and roll gig.

I've gotten quite a bit of printing done as well, both monotypes and etchings. The etchings will probably pop up for whatever holiday show I wind up doing, while the monotypes are pure exploration right now, no real pressure to produce, for the first time in a while. I'll post some pix soon.