The Seaflower

______I have the same art teacher for two of the three art classes I'm taking this semester back to back: Figure Drawing and Drawing Concepts. Let me just describe how much I already adore the man who teaches it: he does yoga, he radiates vitality and an old-world coolness, he's very articulate, and he just seems like a very open, very present kind of human being. On the first day of Figure Drawing, we did some very, herm, particular warm-ups to loosen ourselves.




______One of these warmups was drawing like we were dinosaurs. He instructed us to put our best tiny T-rex arms on and get super intimate with the paper whilst drawing a model in quick bursts of anywhere from 5 to 60 seconds. "You're going to draw with tiny T-rex arms," he elucidated, brows furrowed, "and pretend you are ferociously protecting your dinosaur eggs. This is not just for my amusement, but it mostly is." He suddenly blasted his iPod music, an eclectic mix of sick rap beats and electronic instrumentals, and we drew with fierce, scraggly dino-arms, our faces so close to the paper we were practically slobbering on it.




______Next, we did "combat drawing," where you tried to draw the model again in swift, gestural bursts, but this time, someone was trying to prevent you from drawing. I suffered a few bruises and a blister from this set of gesture drawings (ha, more like scribble drawings), which is pretty dang rad. How many people can say they got bruises from art class? Some kids were shoving each other into the desks, rubbing charcoal on their opponent's faces with blackened hands, and smashing their wrists fiercely at their opponent's charcoal sticks until they broke.

______Me? I'm pretty sure I grabbed some my partner's boob a few times. Meanwhile, my at teacher was sauntering about these fierce drawing battles, laughing, shouting, "I love art class!"

______Me too, Mr. Art Teacher. Me too.

______Onward.




______"You guys have seen Harry Potter, right?" he inquired, searching the room. We all nodded and smiled, our hair in tangles and our arms stained up to our elbows in charcoal. "You know that part where the bludger is cursed and it beats him off his broom, and that weird professor tries to fix his arm, but it just goes all bone-less? I want you guys do draw like that." And so we had to stomp and jiggle and wiggle and even make weird sounds, all whilst scribbling madly on newsprint. I adored how nobody thought this was odd and we all began wobbling about as soon as the music began without a moment's hesitation. Even my art teacher was waltzing about the room.

______This. Man. Is everything I have ever wanted in an art teacher.



______"There. Now you don't have to go do yoga," he said at the end of the class. "This class was for bonding, exercise, and drawing."



Dress: via Urban Outfitters
Floral blazer: Forever 21
Red booties: Charlotte Russe
Necklace: Charming Charlie
Bling earrings: c/o Jojo Loves You