Super tired, beautiful day

Water Image 1
Stage 8 (done).
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 30 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

I added some water shine to the
face, and covered the blue
spot on the neck. As I
painted I remembered the
chilly March day when Claudia and
I worked on the first session for this
project. She is always a super
model, the subject of so
many of my paintings.
Thanks Claudia.

I am going to make it short today. I went to my
friend's shipper, a very nice guy at U.P.S. and I'm
saying goodbye to my work Thursday morning.
So off it goes -- farewell. It has been the most
amazing spring day here.

I've been thinking about teachers today, after
hearing a horror story about a mean teacher.
As an artist I know that the way to teach people
is through encouragement. Nothing else really
works. In art confidence is as important as
talent. Yet so many people who teach in the art
field believe in telling their students that it's a
cruel, hard world "out there." Meanwhile the
people who make up those stories to frighten
talented people who want to succeed in precarious
art professions are not "out there" wherever
that is.

My experience so far (and I realize I'm very
young and lucky) is that unless you're in a war zone, an
abusive family, or have not got enough food
or shelter, or are terribly ill, the world out there
turns out to be the way you imagine it will be. The
stats on artists' financial situations, and on the
possibilities for success are irrelevant when it
comes to you, or me, or a student. We can have
a different, even a unique experience. And if we
give out joy, we will very likely get it back.

If you teach art, please give your students the
confidence boost they need. If you teach anything
please do that. Learners, especially late teen,
early 20 learners, need to be treated with great
kindness to flourish. My friends on the blog have
given me the solid encouragement that has sent
me to Florence, and now New York. Just one
year ago I could not have envisioned that
possibility. Now -- your kindness and support
has truly given me enough confidence to keep on
going.

Thank you for that.

Have a treating-your-students-with-love-and-care day.