I am currently taking a painting class at the SMFA as part of my Illustration Certificate. The class is organized like a workshop where we come up with self directed projects and the teacher pushes us in directions we need to be pushed. In addition to helping me critique all of the T-scapes I have done so far, my teacher encouraged me to think of another series I might be interested in working on in class. On the first day she talked about how weird artists are and how sometimes we collect things and don't know why, but eventually we will figure out what to do with them. There is a reason for everything we do, even if we haven't yet discovered it.
I realized that I have a vast collection of scarves so I decided to make a painting of each one. When my teacher asked if there are stories behind each scarf, I said, "Absolutely!" and she recommended finding ways to incorporate the stories into the project, so I began writing down each story. Once I had stories drafted for each scarf, a writer friend helped me pick out the heart of each story-- just one sentence or phrase to sum up the whole-- and I painted the text.
I am really pleased with how this project is coming along so far! Here's what I've got:
