On a cold day in November, 2021 my friend Ashley called me and said “Can we start getting together on the regular? I need a weekly art time and I’m up for whatever. ” I said “Sure!” I had actually been planning to do a deep dive into color theory with the book Color: A Workshop for Artists & Designers by David Hornung. She was on board with color theory, so we got started with a once a week Saturday morning two hour session. We purchased the paints recommended by David Hornung (Josonja Matte Flow Acrylics), along with a few other supplies.
It’s been two years now and we’ve learned so much. The basics have been hue, value, and saturation, moving to ever more challenging concepts, such as creating color interactions, color proportions, and the illusion of transparency. Each chapter in the book has hands on lessons that require making many, and I mean many, color swatches, analyzing them for hue, value, and saturation, and then observing their interactions through collage.
These aren’t the most important lessons I learned though. I learned once again the power of strong friendships, the power in spending regular and ongoing time being intimate, getting to know another human on a deeper level. As we get older I fear we begin closing ourselves off to new opportunities for wonder and besties and enlightenment. By saying yes to Ashley on that cold Autumn day I said yes to the unknown, yes to a challenge, yes to a new friend, yes to collaborative learning, yes to color. I now love Ashley. I call her a dear friend.
Last summer she said she wanted to make face masks using clay. She’s a potter, but said she had never tried this and wondered if I would be her partner. I of course said yes. We met at her house on a warm June day. We had to wash our faces and then coat them in Vaseline. Ashley did my face first. While I lay still she slowly covered my entire face with these gauzy, wet plaster strips. It was an experience like non other. Slowly my eyes were covered and my mouth was covered. Then I had to sit for 15 minutes and wait for the plaster to cure. After my mask was removed I reciprocated by covering her face one little piece at a time. It required a level of trust I didn’t expect. To allow someone to cover your face and then protect you while you lie covered takes courage. By this time we had been meeting for about 7 months, chatting and creating two hours a week. But after the faces I felt like we had entered a new level of friendship. Over the coming weeks we formed the clay inside our plaster masks, let the clay slowly dry, fired the masks, glazed the masks, and fired them again. It was a five star magical life experience. Here’s the video if you’re interested:
After almost two years Ashley and I are still at it. We’ve been together through some thick times. My weekly time with Ashley has become a timestamp. It’s interesting to see how much changes, and also stays the same, with a weekly checkin. We need a word for this, like a landmark, only time instead of space. I love Ashley. I love our time together. I think about the history of humanity. Haven’t women been gathering together, creating and solving problems, for as long as women exist. We are doing hopefully what women before us did. It’s empowering to be with other women who care deeply about us and we care deeply for them, over time and space and art.
TLDR: Ashley and I make art together. Art brought us together and we love each other.