{"id":5184,"date":"2017-06-14T11:36:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T18:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=5184"},"modified":"2017-06-14T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T21:33:03","slug":"june-14-2017-learning-paint-fuzzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/life-stories\/june-14-2017-learning-paint-fuzzy\/","title":{"rendered":"June 14, 2017 – Learning to paint fuzzy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The painting I’m working on – I got the hard part done first – the fuzzy background. I still don’t find them easy!<\/p><\/div>\n

Do you ever wonder who ate the first artichoke?\u00a0 Who saw this prickly, thistly thing and thought it would be edible?\u00a0 I ask myself these questions all the time \u2013 appreciating having been born in a time when so much has already been figured out!\u00a0 I think of all the people who perished by eating poisonous things \u2013 before we had ways of knowing what was poisonous versus what would provide the nutrition we need to stay alive.\u00a0 It\u2019s no small thing! In the time of human history \u2013 which has just been determined to be another hundred million years older than previously thought – there has been a vast body of knowledge acquired.\u00a0 And with the advent of the Internet during the tiniest last bit of that history, a huge part of all this knowledge is available with a few taps on a keyboard.\u00a0 It\u2019s mind boggling!\u00a0 As a student of how we learn I see the part that information plays – but it only just cracks open the door to learning how to do something.<\/p>\n

It seems there are (at least) two kinds of learning \u2013 either we gain information via reading, listening or watching, or we have to plunge in and do<\/em> something.\u00a0 I\u2019m a compulsive learner – especially the information gathering kind.\u00a0 I love knowing just for the sake of knowing<\/em> and I also know it can take me over!\u00a0 I love the other kind of learning too \u2013 though it does not come nearly as easily.\u00a0 I find it empowering to have skills<\/em>.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned to use knives in the kitchen, to set ceramic tile, to handle plants in the garden, to make my own clothes, embroidery stitching, cross stitch and needle point \u2013 though I can\u2019t handle knitting needles for beans!\u00a0 I find it very satisfying to be able to do<\/em> things with my hands. It\u2019s no surprise then that I ended up doing something tactile, making these paintings.\u00a0 The thing about learning a skill is that it\u2019s not as easy as running your eyes across words, you have to move your muscles and interact with stuff \u2013 with materials in the physical world.<\/p>\n

Sally Ragusa, someone who is dear to me,\u00a0 is a student of mine from Arizona \u2013 she came all the way here to Larkspur to take the color workshop last year.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve been painting my way through this pretty intricate \u201cfuzzy background\u201d in the past week I have had Sally\u2019s voice in my head – asking me to teach how to paint out of focus.\u00a0 The truth is as much as I can describe what I do, with every single one of these backgrounds I find my way through<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just one technique I follow throughout.\u00a0 Sometimes I do one thing sometimes I do the opposite.\u00a0 So, Sally, here goes.\u00a0 I\u2019ll describe what I\u2019ve observed.<\/p>\n