I am a lover of learning. While I definitely have a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants spirit in a lot of my projects, I am a big fan of education. For this reason, I try to expose myself to lots of sources of knowledge when I have the chance.
Several years ago, I wanted to learn to paint so I joined an oil painting class at the La Habra Community Center. The class was almost exclusively seniors (who else is available on Wednesday mornings?) and I was the youngest class member by some forty or fifty years. Surrounding myself with 70-year-old painters taught me a lot. I learned about composition and layout but I also about something I didn’t expect.
Many of these artists hadn’t picked up painting until after they retired. They risked learning something new after a lifetime of another craft. Most of them weren’t very good artists but they kept coming to socialize and connect. They used art to build community.
While I think that art is good for a community, I also believe it can be a means of developing a community. This is why I was delighted when Jeni Maus at Studio EMP, my friendly neighborhood photography studio, told me about Project Art School. This new space is a studio, a place for workshops, a gallery for rotating exhibits, and an all-around cool place to hang out.
I can’t wait to take one of their upcoming workshops. Letterpress has always mesmerized me. Book arts make me drool. I’m looking forward to practicing these in my own neighborhood soon. I hope I’ll even get to rub elbows with some of my art-loving neighbors. We may not be retired yet but a new hobby just might help us get to know one another.
Project Art School is also a supporter of the up-and-coming Downtown Fullerton Art Walk on the first Friday of each month. Hope to see you there!
Tags: art, Downtown Fullerton, Fullerton Art Walk, oil painting, Project Art School, Studio EMP
thanks allison. it was great meeting you the other day. what a great write-up. we all have more to learn and there’s only one way to do it… with others. we hope you will grow and learn with us and we take on our mission in downtown fullerton: do art. view art. love people. because without people, we have nothing. looking forward to a great year! hope to see on first fridays! :bp
So great,
You should contact Arias…I think she has been involved with the Santa Ana art walk…also she is helping to create an art school or something like that, AND, you guys are totally neighbors!!
whoa!! that sounds like an awesome project!! very cool!