Thursday, March 3, 2011

College, Motorcycles, and Artists

I've been going back to school, and so far it's been going pretty well. I tried to paint something for class that was a little beyond me at first but the more I get into it, the better it seems to be. That's what I get for listening to the teacher, better. Which is fine by me. I love art. Something about it just never ceases to amaze me.

The Motorcycle Series that I started doing is something that was stopped to get ready for the bike show in Timonium last month. I need to get back into that again. The paintings really helped me get ready for school and I think that after some of the material being covered that school is helping me get even more in depth with my paintings and other artworks.

To make sure that I kick off the restart the right way, there is one motorcycle builder that has had a really big impact on both my Dad and myself. I wrote him a letter and asked to do a painting of his current project, to which he had replied "Yes". I was thrilled, the bike builder in particular I'll keep a secret for now in case I go mad and this painting drives me insane. I'm excited though, I would love to send a painting to his shop, I'd be happy knowing that I could send a gift from one art guy to one moto guy.

The art though, something about it I can't explain. The process maybe? It's calming, it relaxes me, it's borderline therapeutic and I can't do enough of it. I'm 23 years old which of course means that I've spent a bit of time screwing around and being a derelict. I've had jobs in different fields and made a few friends that I'll hang with for a good long time to come. I've made a lot of people angry with me and vice versa too, but we don't talk so it's fine. Through all the years that I've been trying to figure out what to do with myself, being completely boggled by everything that normal people find trivial, somehow I never stray to far from Art.

It is the one thing in my little blip of an existence that makes me feel like me. It excites me, gets me thinking about problems on canvas, makes me want to learn, and somehow at the same time gets me to relax, drown out everything that is wrong with myself, my situation, the rest of the world. When I do something with Art, everything stops until I get done. I don't concentrate on anything else until I'm satisfied, and it helps me. The last few paintings I've done somehow I managed to start doing in kind of a funk but then when I was done with them had this overwhelming feeling of accomplishment and contentment.

I know I'm being all touchy feely and not a lot of people go for that. Art is just the thing for me, I don't know anybody that can really say "I do what I love and it loves me back," but that's how it feels when I'm practicing Art. I'll continue to practice it until I get to old to see, or if my arms get bitten off by sharks, but I don't see that happening anytime soon (knock on wood).

2 comments:

  1. Kyle-

    Your artwork is most excellent, dude... and i dig your philisophical piece here :) Art is a somewhat unexplainable thing... its exciting, refreshing, exhausting at times... but if there is a even the slightest twinge of pain in doing it or trying to learn something, it doesn't even register when it's done. Art is the rewarding 'destination' at the end of the application and technique 'journey' lol What you creat is Art, my friend, and you are quite good at it. I imagine it is something you'll excel at forever

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  2. I hopefully will be practicing for a very long time to come. Not to get all mushy with you either, but watching you progress since I met you a few years ago has been really great as well. Your art, whether is involved with the auto or moto side or something a little more pure, it's all been beautiful work.

    I love doing doodles and skateboards and even getting back into oil painting has been nice the last few weeks. The technical side is where I tend to have a hard time, just learning how to do something the right way and turning that into a useful skill so it becomes second nature instead of hard practice. Color is something I think I'll always have a hard time with, especially mixing and having it match whats in the brain or in front of me. Time will tell, must keep at it :)

    ps. not to get on a tangent, but I asked my Dad the other night what day the show was and he said "I don't know..."... Woo-hoo for last minute planning :) we got it in spades

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