Hello, I'm a new registrant. I've been mining this forum for quite a while, however, and I have already found an enormous amount of practical information here! This is a priceless resource.
My name is Laura Bowen Shelley. I'm in my early 40s and a married mother. Twenty years ago I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz as a fine arts major. For most of the time since then, I have worked as a computer graphic artist. Specifically, in computer games!
That was all right for a while, but I've always had a yen to get back to what I was trained to do.
Not that 1980s liberal arts universities had all that much in the way of actual art training, as I know many of you are aware. My natural inclination is towards representation and traditional mediums. Some of my professors shared that inclination, but I was always frustrated by the general lack of rigor and the emphasis on 'self-expression'--for 19-year-olds? I consider fine art not just an Art but a discipline and a profession. My instinct is to get past the mystic gobbledegook that too often surrounds the making of art and cut to the chase. In other words, talk about real-life procedures and techniques first and let the spiritual part take care of itself, as it almost always will when you are not making it your sole focus.
Both of my boys (11 and 6 years old) have some social/emotional problems, and so for the past five years, both by necessity and because of career instability, I have not worked much outside the home. My children have needed a lot of therapy and special interventions, but both of them have improved to the point that I'm able to start re-building an occupation. Money is a problem for me and my husband, since we live in an expensive area--Silicon Valley. However, this part of California is also ideal for finding a market for fine art. I've done portrait commissions from time to time for many years, and now I'm working to make that a full-time occupation and business.
I was primarily trained as an oil painter, printmaker and sculptor. When I began in the game industry, I picked up computer graphics on the job. I stopped using oils when I became pregnant with my first child, and I have not picked them up since. For a long time after my son's birth I didn't do much fine art, but eventually I started drawing again. After a couple of years of work in graphite and charcoal, I was itching for color. I wanted to avoid solvents, since I have to work in my home, and I wanted to avoid anything that was time-critical or had drying requirements. I had never used pastels except as a sketch medium, but it occurred to me that they might be ideal for my situation.
A year and a half later, I have a large collection of commercial pastel brands and many handmade sticks mixed from Kitty Wallis's pastel doughs. I've registered my fictitious business name, and I'm working on commissions garnered from donations to school fundraising auctions. That's only one of the valuable ideas I gathered here--I would not be even as far along as I am without having had this forum to read. I am very happy to have discovered it! I am well aware that my skills are not on a par with those of the experienced experts here, and I hope that I can make good use of their example.
This is a little portrait of my sons at the beach. 9 x 12 on Wallis paper, soft pastel.
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