For the love

I stumbled upon a program on the National Gallery in London, it's kind of showing a look at the Gallery and a sort of a behind the scenes look at a day in the life, or year of the life of the gallery.
I've never been to the museum and it isn't one that I've given a great deal of thought to, I knew there were a lot of great museums in London and intended to get there some day, I now fully wish/intend to make it to the National Gallery some day.
Going to the museums, standing among great masterworks is good for the soul, good for my soul anyway (and I would venture to impose it to all souls).

I am an art nerd, the friends I went to Italy with can verify. I get a huge thrill seeing masterworks in person, pieces that I've studied and pieces that I love. It was such a thrill to be there and in person in the Vatican Museum, the Ufizi, the Academia and to be right there, real and in person with the works of Durer, da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc. those that I admire, look up to and respect.  The National Gallery is full of gems, they have a list of 30 paintings, highlights of the collection and the artists, the paintings, they're fantastic!
I may be rambling, I just felt moved, as I often am, by great art and moved to share some of my feelings and enthusiasm. It's been an art rich evening, I hit a few galleries in my local gallery stroll and then this program...art is wonderful.

Important words on the arts

Today I was fortunate to come across this speech which was given at Brigham Young University (my alma mater) in February 1976 by the recently departed President Boyd K. Packer. I read the speech and now I feel like I need to go back and study it over and over again. My faith is very important to me both as a person and as an artist and though my art is currently not overly representational, I try to instill my beliefs into my art.
I have yet to "make it" in the art world, I'm still in what is technically the starving artist phase, meaning I've only sold one painting so far. I feel that I was guided to study art, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to study with Wulf Barsch and other wonderful teacher/artists; it can be discouraging to still not be where I would hope to be. I wonder if I'm doing the right thing and if I'm working hard enough at what I do, honing my skills or squandering my education and talent.
I don't want to be famous but I aspire to be a great artist, for my art to have the impact and influence that some of my art heroes have had, Durer, da Vinci, etc. both with secular and spiritual art. I hope that by studying this speech and working and reevaluating where I'm at, I can come closer to my hopes, dreams and goals.
You should read it too, there are some great things said.

Master Studies

I've been continuing to work on drawings and to draw from the works of master artists. Here's the last weeks drawings.

From a painting by Albrecht Durer

From a study by Michelangelo

From a drawing by Durer

From a drawing by Michelangelo

A study by Michelangelo

And a drawing by Michelangelo

As the week went on I started making a greater effort to really finish the studies and not just to get lazy and call it good.

Power of art

When I was in school I bought a book on Albrecht Durer, I like Durer's work and I thought not much more of it than that. I noticed something about this book though, I often looked through it, studying Durer's work and admiring it, eventually I noticed that times when I unhappy etc. and happened to flip through this book, I found my mood would improve by the time I had looked through the book and the images of Durer's work.
Art is powerful, it has the power to make our lives better, or I suppose worse if used incorrectly, art has power.

Happy Birthday Albrecht!

I found out that today is/was Albrecht Durer's birthday, he's one of my favorite artists. I love both his work and his dedication to the arts, he created multiple instruction manuals for different techniques. You can learn a bit more about him here.