White Sculpture, Blue Van

I fell in love with reflections on this trip. My cell phone camera pointed out how much you can see inside them, I hadn't really noticed before. I love how they capture two worlds that exist at once.

As we walk along, we think of ourselves as the Universe, seeing all there is to be seen. These photos ask, "Who is doing the Seeing? Who is being seen?"

Chinatown

After class I loved to wander through Philly's neighborhoods, until the sun would tilt in the sky and it was time to catch the trolley home. Studio Incamminati is near Chinatown. There was record breaking heat during my stay. I wandered slowly. When the heat slowed me down, I noticed more of what was going on around me.

Shadow and Markers

On my walk toward the trolley stop after the first day of class, I noticed the shadow on City Hall of the Marriot, where I stayed last summer. High above I could see my beloved caryatids that were eye level back then. The bottom photos are of tape markers on the floor that help painters return their easels to the correct spot after a break.

Writing feels creaky these days. Post graduate school, I find the words stack like concrete blocks, instead of flowing like waves. "My attendance at Studio Incamminati enabled me to engage in a meaningful occupation," I start to say.

Is it okay to say that I loved it, and it was really really great?

"Yes," says the Muse, "It is safe to dance on your own page..."

Open Grisaille

Art, which has always been squeezed in between making money and doing dishes, adored being attended to during the day. For two weeks, I painted from 9-4. I painted in the morning, talked to painters about painting during breaks, and returned again to painting in the afternoon. At the end of the day, I had an end of the day, not an exhausted post-work self filled with guilty thoughts about why I don't paint.

Grisaille means "grey," It's a painting of tones ranging from dark to light. In the grisaille stage you use straight lines, because lines and angles allow for room to move, and adjustments can be made. In contrast, circles, such as making the head a circular shape, are complete. And then you are sort of stuck with it.

In this stage you get the whole figure in quickly, its fundamental essence, slant, and weight.

Pink House

One of the great discoveries that made this trip possible, and even more fabulous than expected, was airbnb.com. I found it just before my trip began. You can rent a couch, a room, a studio, or an entire house. If you have an extended stay you can often get a discount. I loved being able to stay in neighborhoods I never would have known about. I felt like a local and didn't have to suffer continental breakfasts at hotels across the country.

I stayed at the "Pink House" in West Philadelphia, and rode the trolley to the Studio. The last picture was taken during my daily commute, the one above it is Milk & Honey, where I bought groceries, down the street from the Pink House and across from the trolley stop.

Studio Incamminati

I discovered Studio Incamminati in the summer of 2009, when I took Sherrie McGraw's workshop. I'd never heard of it before and was in awe when I walked in. It was what I'd been longing for as an artist; huge studios, lots of light, well organized, great instructors, and professional models. I was impressed with the quality of the student's work on the walls. I knew I had to get myself back there somehow.

This is the first day, we began with gestures. Mine is the one in the middle.

About gesture, the instructors said, "Exaggerate the gesture in the beginning, because it will mellow as time goes on," and, "Art expresses emotion, get that feeling in the initial stage."

Philadelphia

Years ago, I made a small box in a silversmithing class that illustrated a Sufi tale called "Fatima, the Spinner, and the Tent". Inside the box, I put a tiny treasure chest to represent the riches bestowed upon Fatima at the end of the story. I went to a local gem shop and bought a tiny diamond, sapphire, emerald, ruby, and piece of gold. They were each the size of a pinhead, and all the jewels together cost less than $20. They were small, but they were real.

It turned out that Fatima's journey, looking in each moment like never ending struggle and disaster, was ultimately leading to her own true happiness.

In the summer of 2010, with everything falling apart around me, I reached out to create my own tiny treasure chest of things I'd always longed to be. Small, but real. I longed to live on the coast of Maine, my days formed by the rhythm of nature, and I wondered what it would be like to truly have time to write.

In Philadelphia, I wondered what it would be like to spend my days as a painter...

Above, John Hancock, poised to make his freedom declaring, no apologies signature, inspired me as I strolled past Independence Hall. He with his feather and parchment, me in the glow of my laptop.