Back to School – 2nd Trimester at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts

We started our 2nd trimester at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Arts on Tuesday – and we’re off to a great start!

It feels good getting back into the routine, although I’m still having to wake up with an alarm, which is quite discombobulating.  Still, I’ve managed healthy breakfasts, occasional yoga, and online art business studies before my walks to school.  I treasure these walks (despite the ever-present clouds of cigarette smoke) as there’s so much to see thanks to our school’s ideal location in the historic core.  Depending on my route, it takes me 30-50 minutes one-way.

Tuesday:

During our opening circle, we shared intentions, did a few sun salutations (yoga), and activated our classroom altar.  Laurence Caruana and Timea Tallian, our main teachers this trimester, gave us an outlook of the months ahead.  Unfortunately, one of the scheduled teachers cancelled, but fortunately, that has opened up exciting opportunities for special guest teachers.  The structure has also changed a little.  I was thrilled to find out that my positive feedback about my 2-day tutoring experience in Payerbach during the holidays has led to programming the trimester as a series of 2-day workshops that will allow us to focus on each subject more intensively: learn, practice, and integrate.  That sure works for me!  Fridays will be reserved for studio time, and we’ll still have live figure drawings for 2 hours twice a week.

Our theme during the winter trimester is – The Hieratic Style: The ‘Eastern’ Canon of Ancient, Islamic & Hindu-Buddhist Art.  I’m very much looking forward to this! Already, my interest was piqued as we reflected on what sacred geometry underlies our own art and how to apply this to a makara,a figure which is recognizable straight on, but also as symmetrical profiles.  There are many examples of these in architecturall elements of places of worship around the world, but especially so in Hindu ones.

Our group will be smaller this term – Donnalynne and Jake are now gone, but Rachel from New York has joined us – for a total of 7 students.  Now that the Academy has finally received its certification (received a few days after the end of classes in December – Congratulations Laurence & Florence for the materialization of your vision!), it will be easier for students to arrange attending for longer periods.  I’m still in the process of getting my residence permit, but it’s looking very good.  Stay tuned!

Wednesday – Thursday: Subject Matter

On Wednesday, Laurence opened a discussion on evoking inner Images through dreams, especially the symbolic ones that represent life threshold crossings.  We’ve become more and more focused on words in this age of prose, but life has a rich history of expressing itself through images.  If you’re interested in this, take a look at Laurence’s book “Enter Through the Image: The Ancient Image Language of Myth, Art & Dreams“.  We had been asked to write down our dreams for a couple of days, but I only managed to do so in my dreams, waking up to a blank paper beside me…  I’ve found dream journals very useful during major decision-making times, but so treasure my sleep that I haven’t gotten back into the habit this week, despite increasingly rich dreams.  I could see how dreams would be a rich source of inspiration for paintings – just look at Dali’s work!  Together, we looked at examples from our past/childhood that featured connections with animals, superpowers, etc.

We ended the day on Wednesday with 2 hours of life figure drawing – which confirmed that if you don’t use it, you lose it!  I confess – I haven’t been practicing, and my results show it.  Laurence warned us to be gentle on ourselves as this is to be expected…. Still, by the end, it was starting to come back to me.  I feel I’ve got much less psychological baggage around drawing this trimester – I’m certain, therefore, that learning will be much more fun now – so glad I decided to stay here more than 1 trimester!

What fun! On Thursday, Timea gave us a great presentation on Subject Matter: Natural History based on Max Ernst.  He found new worlds, for example, through his obsession with floorboards while snowed-in in the Tetra mountains.  If you’ve ever recognized figures in clouds or rocks (like this one I photographed in the afternoon), you’ll know what I’m talking about.  By rubbing (frottage) such textured surfaces, you can easily be inspired to create new worlds.

I really enjoyed playing with the decalomania technique of splattering watered down acrylic paint on a paper and pressing another on top and twisting – coming up with interesting foundations for new works.  My favourite, however, was doing so on half of a folded paper to create symmetrical blotches, which you’ll recognize if you’ve ever heard of the psychological Rorschach test – used here for inspirational vs. analytical purposes.

Timea Tallian – one of our main teachers.

In the afternoon, we took these to the Natural History Museum to study textures and patterns and find inspiration for some of our trimester paintings which will include the creation of new creatures onto these decalomania experiments.  After walking around the museum for a couple of hours photographing reference material, I sat in a corner of the insect section and drew in a meditative state – using coloured pencils to transform one of my blotches into a butterfly.

I had visited this museum during The Long Night of the Museums and had a similar energetic experience.  Although its floors are filled with beautiful examples of minerals and creatures of all shapes and sizes, the place feels very …. dead.  I think those huge rooms filled with rocks and crystals could use a cleansing – the kind that could easily occur if they opened the blinds the night before the full moon.  My feelings were confirmed by Timea who spent years working there – she explained how it’s the biggest cemetery in Austria – 6 floors underground filled with human and animal specimens from all around the world.  Before and after our explorations, we stood in a circle under the dome of the front lobby, thanking all spirits for our visit there and informing them that we’d be leaving them behind.  I tell you – this is my kind of school – not quite Hogwarts, but pretty close on some days 🙂

Friday – Studio Time

Making Fridays a studio day was a great idea – this will allow us the time to get in a state of Flow and working on our trimester paintings from both last trimester and this one.  My main painting certainly progressed a lot this Friday, even if it’s layers away from being finished.

Recommended Movie:

During class this week, the movie Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds was strongly recommended and after watching it, I agree.  I’m starting to understand my longtime obsession with spirals more…  You can see all 4 parts for free on YouTube:  Akasha; The Spiral; The Serpent and the Lotus, and; Beyond Thinking.

Summary:

What a great first week!  I am so grateful to be here, investing time, money, and energy into my art.  Life is good!