my process? you want to know about my process?

the days of painting to rid myself of unwanted stressed are long gone and i've returned to yesteryear when i painted for fun. so it seems rich wants us to paint a still life that i think is neato cheeto, but has a lot of details and textures and contours and other little quirks. while manda has chosen her version of the still life, i over confidently decide to paint what i see. BIG MISTAKE. so it seems it's been a while since i painted in a manner that is controlled and actually resembles something else.

i was the first of the two of us to bravely slap yellow ochre on my canvas to get some intial shapes. ah...the joys of starting a painting with fresh ideas and spirits high. well as the days pass, i realize i have bitten off more than i can chew. i had a hat, guitar, rustic vase with penny plants, a mat for a picture and fruit in my still life. i was determined to paint them! however, as reality would have it, they were determined not to be painted. i fussed and cussed at my cavas through days two and three of our painting studio. my vase was the first to go and the background fabric changed for the first of several times. the next focus shifted to the hat, which i really liked after spending some much needed time on it. the guitar wouldn't cooperate after painting it three times, so out it went to be supplanted with a birdhouse. since i couldn't have the birdhouse sitting on the paint can that was reality, i placed it on a book with shadows that worked. then i changed the background fabric for the second time. AAAARRRGGGHHH!

ok, so rich says that my over analytical side is strong and that i need to keep trying. he adds that for one to be happy with a painting, one has to be happy with the composition. HEY, that's it! come to find out, i never liked the original composition of the still life. once i added the birdhouse in reality to the scene and removed the guitar and vase, i was happy. this is what i subconciously wanted to see. this and the wine bottle i was to add in later. the fabric changed again...

day four brought me fist-to-cuffs with my painting! i was ready to be done with it, no more i said. i'm D-U-N, done! after removing fabric three and ranting to manda about my dang painting, she eloquently suggests, "why don't you try meditating on what you've got so far." after i laughed out loud, i reluctantly agreed. staring at the center and trying to empty my mind of distractions, the truth was breaking through the acrylic. i just needed to stand my ground and reconcile with my painting with a, "you can do it man!" slogan over my shoulder. therefore, i covered over the entire area of fabric with white paint and started over on it for the fourth or fifth time, it really doesn't matter.

reconciliation brought much joy and satisfaction as i painted what i saw on the fabric. i was able to get the folds correct and my shadows to work. the final addition would be the green glass wine bottle with horses on the label. it was placed where the vase and mat were originally. finally, the piece was complete and i was plenty happy.

Plain Valley

justin: today we decided we'd hike into Plain (the town, which is quite plain with only two stores) to find Manda some boots. B/c you know who didn't bring any with her and so her feet were wet and cold. On the way over the snow covered bridge WE WERE ATTACKED BY A MAD COUGAR WHICH LUNGED AT MANDA, RIPPING THE KNEE AND BACK POCKET OF HER JEANS. SHE PUT IT IN A HEADLOCK AS I DROP KICKED IT IN THE STOMACH. Luckily we survived and were able to continue on our travels. With no boots in town, we headed back.

Manda: The people here at Grunewald are great so far, and we've had plenty of time to get to know them as there's not many here right now. The guild is a community that thrives in the summer time and hibernates in the winter months when their programming is a little slower and the snow closes them in. Erica is the hospitality coordiantor and our portal to the GG world. She's been kind enough to lend me her boots for our stay since i've forgotten my common sense and my boots in Chicago. Brandi is the guild housekeeper and the youngest person on staff. She's offered to vaccuum our rooms for us, but we're both ashamed so far at the messes we've made in the mere days we've been here. Bill is the maintenance man and has been good enough to dig out most of the buildings for us and Dan is the new Director of Grunewald...he spends a lot of time at his computer. Nathan is the community cook and so far is cooking so well that we're putting on extra insulation if you know what I mean. If i'm forced to eat one more brownie made from scratch I might....no I won't do anything but smile.

Finally Painting!

Manda: Today we finally got into the paint studio for the first time. Thank goodness that we turned up the heat before lunch or the paint might've all been frozen. We worked with acrylic and today was just time to play around and figure out what we can do with the different paints, mediums and tools. Justin is already an expert painter as some of you might know but this was my first time painting and Rich did a great job introducing me to the medium. In playing with the paints today I ended up with a pretty neat Hawaiian flower looking thing. So far playing with paint is fun, but i'm still intimidated to tackle a blank canvas. Unfortunately Rich started setting up a still life for us to start on....who knows what he'll find to put on that table. Justin's not worried...he's already sticking dried paint chips on his practice canvas and calling it art. Ahhh...to be free spirited and creative for a whole month!

justin: so the slides in class are great and wonderful and fading and all that fun jazz. We just love razzing Rich about his stories and who knew Mary had a momma named Anna... not me! The majority of the churches we saw in slides were ones he has worked on. He's done amazing work on over 600 churches worldwide. His sense of humor mixed with my daily consumption of caffeine helps the morning move along faster. We've seen everything from huge baptismal fonts with birds and pulleys to glorified birdbath sizes with four feet of oak on all sides. The church murals are a marvel and some of these pulpits are like lookout posts on a boat.

The paint studio was fun. Getting in there with my "paint clothes" on and having it up to my elbows by dinner time. I love paint chips on canvas, so you know me...i borrowed some of Manda's for my first project that looked like a spiritual eagle rising from a mountain face. The others disagree and see smearings, but what do they know...they've never seen spiritual eagles...gosh! Rich is jazzed about setting up the still life for our big paintings. This is so rad!

Quickie Post

Today we did watercolors.

Who knew that watercolors come in pencils not made for kindergarteners?

In our exuberance, we made watercolor postcards for family and friends.

Who knew watercolor paper can be 25 bucks a sheet?

Tomorrow the paint (acrylic) studio may be shoveled out and then we might begin painting. WooHoo!

class begins

Manda: Rich Caemmerer is our instructor while we're here at GG. He's taking three hours every morning to teach us all that he knows about art and architecture of churches. He assures us that this won't all fit in the three weeks that we're here, but he's going to try. We're starting with modern church archtecture and these churches range from boring brick boxes to towering gothic cathedrals. There are churches that look like icebergs in Finland, that look like a crown of thorns in Italy, and one that looks like nothing we've ever seen before in France...but that one's just a pilgrimage church so it's liturgically acceptable for it to look so weird. Class promises to be wonderful and it'll be nice having just two students to ask as many questions as we please.


Justin: We just couldn't wait to get started, so on Sunday before classes began we went exploring around the GG compound. We couldn't get into everything that day because all the buildings were still snowed in. I tried to get into one of the dormitories, but sunk up to my hips and fell face first into the snow. Yeah, it was VERY cold. We found our way to the pot shop and Manda began her first day of throwing (ever!) as I started on hand-building. It felt familiar to have cold clay in my hands, to create anything I wanted. Manda was having trouble with centering, so I told her to just imagine Patrick Swayze behind her helping her to center. Needless to say, she didn't like the idea.

So the first studio time was after lunch following our slide lectures. It began with sketching things like a bowl with a hairspray can and a glass goblet on it. Not entirely theological, but a good grounding in shadows and values. He mentioned to us as we fussed over the shapes that an artist first has to be confident in their craft to better allow the meaning to show forth. We thought it was too profound for us...haha..

Arrival

Manda: It was three days on a trian to get to Grunewald Guild (GG) for me. Watching the land change from flat and brown to mountains and snow made me more anxious to get there. When I finally arrived in Wenatchee, I still had to get to the guild and wait for my ride. It 's the first day and already I see the benefits of intentional community. A woman named Liv is on her way from Holden Village to GG for her "out." She agreed to pick me up on the way, saving me a day at the bus station. On the ride there, we saw the new 6 ft of snow that the valley had just received. The road there was slippery and after a 180 degree spin, we arrived at GG unscatched. I'm so exhausted from anticipation that I'm taking a nap until Justin arrives. J-Term has begun.....

Justin: My travel was a bit shorter than Manda's. It was only a days air flight through Seattle to Wenatchee (the apple capital of the world). This was my first trip to the NW and it was beautiful with all the snow and such. I was pretty zonked when I arrived to the Guild as well, but was raring to go and get my hands messy with some art. The first evening was a night community meal of homemade pizza. Rich and Liz Caemmerer, the founders of the guild back in 1980, were our hosts and teachers. We finished the night at their home reading an epiphany poem as a group and enjoying a chocolate fondue.

Watch this site for reports from Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago students Amanda Truchinski and Justin Eller, spending their J-Term at the Grunewald Guild near Leavenworth, Washington.