Van Gogh wanna-be

I love sunflowers.

I love Van Gogh’s Sunflower.

Looking back, I don’t know if I liked sunflowers because of Van Gogh’s painting, or if I liked Van Gogh’s painting because I liked sunflowers.

In any case, I got hooked on Van Gogh’s paintings. Especially after I visited his museum and got to see his paintings with my own eyes. I started downloading pictures of his paintings in the internet, trying to imitate his artwork through sketches. And mind you, my sketches were not a pretty sight. My version of the chair in one of his paintings (of his room, I think), didn’t look like a chair at all! (see photo).

But since I had this delusion that someday I would be like him, with millions of people admiring my artwork, in my own museum, I decided to take up art classes in January. I actually took art classes 8 years ago. But since my previous boss was a workaholic and wanted his staff to work overtime, and even over the weekend, I was not able to graduate. Damn! My classmates even had medals and certificates!

That class was actually frustrating. Since it was done in the summer, we had a lot of young classmates – as young as 9 years old. And my ego was at its lowest since I could not even draw a vase! It’s like rubbing salt to injury when I took a peek at my 9 year old classmate’s drawing. It was damn good! Far better than mine! Well, I just convinced myself that the kid would be the next Malang of the Philippines.

But as they say, never say never. I would not let a 9-year old art freak step on my dreams of becoming the next Van Gogh. So, I enrolled…again. This time, I chose the weekday classes, Wednesday mornings. For sure there would be no kids attending the class. And if there are, I would convince their parents that primary education is far more important that art classes. I could not afford to let another kid ruin my dream! Bwahaha!

Art class is really fun! Especially with a teacher like ours. (Send me a message if you want to enroll in his class). He always has a good and encouraging word for everyone. One time, while looking at my sketches, during our nude sketching sessions (no, we didn’t sketch in the nude, we had a nude model, hahaha!), he looked at my artwork, and commented, “Ang galing ng sketch mo ah!”. I looked at him incredulously, and thought, this man must be crazy! My sketch didn’t look like a woman at all! It looked like a large log with a large fruit hanging at the end! But hey, he’s a master in art, he really must see something in my work, right? Nonetheless, I was very disappointed with what I did. I wanted to pay my respect to the girl posing as our nude model. It’s not easy literally stripping off all your clothes in front of 20 amateur wanna-be artists. I wanted to make art out of what she is doing, because it is what supposed to be done… art. Unfortunately, no matter how I tried to find the best angle, best lighting and shadow effect, the best pencil, and the best sketchpad, my sketch simply did not look like her. Maybe my forte is in abstract art. Can’t wait for our lesson in abstract!

I can’t let the small things bother me. I believe that I am an artist! I would not let comments of my teacher’s assistant like, “Anong nangyari sa vase mo, binagyo?” get to me. They don’t realize my potentials! They don’t know art! They don’t know that I’m the next Van Gogh! (Come to think of it, Van Gogh didn’t become famous until he became crazy, cut his ears and died. Morbid, morbid thoughts! I love my ears!!!)

In the basic art class, we were able to do pencil sketching, shading, pentel pen sketches, craypas drawings, and watercolor. I liked craypas best. You’re supposed to color the paper with full force, in order to completely cover the paper. It’s a good therapy, I tell you. Just think of all the things that pisses you off, and you will never notice that you actually have covered your whole sketch page with color! – red for blood, green for bile, black for misery.

After several Wednesdays of pure concentration and sheer determination, I was able to graduate! Yahoo! Finally, the first step to my dream of becoming the next Van Gogh! I am victorious!

My fearless forecast? I would be busy the next few years doing artwork for my exhibit, for my art patrons, for my future museum. So if I were you, you should immediately commission me for an artwork. I will be the next hot thing in art! I will be famous! I will be the next Van Gogh! Bwahaha!!!

Disclaimer:
The author is not morally and socially responsible for any statements written in this blog entry. It was not her who wrote the article, it was her delusional, evil, self-consumed twin sister, psychologically traumatized because of the still-unfulfilled dream of becoming a visual artist. Rest assured that the evil twin sister is being psychologically counseled and treated for her delusions.


05 March 2006
8:05pm
Penang