The Path to Professionalism

[Elizabeth Schott]

Mari, it has been so wonderful to watch you these past three years!

It's hard to believe you left a wonderful job as a chef to take on the academic art world, but we are certainly glad you did! This drawing just proves it - it is lovely.

Your dedication/drawing is inspiring - just as your supporter - Mr. Whitaker!

[Mari DeRuntz]

Thank you for your kind voices - old friends and new. I knew this thread would not be the coup Mr Whitaker hoped for, but I am willing to sometimes be social if even one artist sees that, yes, Art is being taught and pursued in small studios all over this enormously conflicted modern globe.

It will always be a very small room of people who are interested in this sort of work. Modernity offers too many easy paths to call ourselves artists before we're even crudely competent with charcoal, and because I believe in this training so completely, I know that I'll only have a nostalgic attachment to this drawing in a few years. In fact, the best around me would destroy something so flawed.

I can't wait to see Bill's examples in 10 years, because I'll tell you what, the 14-year-olds who spend summer sessions here - now they are really something to watch.