#025 - Back in Brooklyn: Folly or Forethought?
How to keep your momentum in the face of a Big Apple
To my dearest readers,
School is out for the summer!
Thank god!
Many people have asked me how I feel. I feel great. I got nine hours of sleep last night! I am catching up on my 137 unread text messages! I bought a bag of chia seeds and I am figuring out how to eat them! Life is good.
I am back in Brooklyn and cosplaying being a grown-up artist. For the month, I have a studio in Greenpoint. It is an easy bike ride from my apartment and in a warehouse with all the ambiance of old Brooklyn– big windows, high ceilings, and exposed beams. The studio has a view of Manhattan where I can see both the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings. I can also see the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment plant which is equally as interesting to look at
The space is smaller than my Philadelphia studio and I only brought my bare-bones oil paint set, but it works for now. My last studio in New York was the size of a small bedroom on the first floor of a rat-infested house in Bed-Stuy (a story for a different time) so this is a dream come true.
Besides, I have needed a new routine for a few weeks and some distance from academia. I have been myopically obsessed with my own work. I started to say, “the materiality of painting” “problematic” or “Utopia” in every other sentence. This made me a terrible conversationist because most of the art world does not talk about art this way (also problematic and a story for another time).
No one has asked me directly if the MFA is worth it, yet. But I think that is the subtext when people ask “How do you feel?” Because when I answer that question, we end up discussing the MFA thing. And yes, I do think it is worth it.
I learned how to really paint this year. As silly as this sounds, I learned how to push paint around the canvas in a way that… just makes sense to me. Michael, my fiancé/ roommate/ editor-in-chief, thinks I need to describe this better. He asked me, “Did you learn how to technically paint better?” I did but mostly I just learned how to paint better in general, like how to use color and use my brushes. How to pick subjects, and how to create images. I am still not a photorealist but I learned how to make my way of painting work better for me. And this made my work more ambitious and more complex, less clunky, less awkward, and more as they say in art critiques, “successful” and “Interesting”.
I think the trick is figuring out how can I keep my momentum going when in the extreme environment of New York. The MFA environment is also extreme but the pressures tend to encourage creative work while New York tends to flatten everything in the name of profit. How do I keep growing even when I can see all of Manhattan outside my window?
I am trying out the real world again to see how it goes while keeping on the academic training wheels. Knowing that I will be back in the soft, sweet embrace of a master's program in the fall makes my return to the big city feel lower stakes than it will in a year. I remember the sensation of floundering after I graduated from college too well to repeat it. I am going to try my hardest to avoid any type of “lost” feeling upon getting my diploma.
As you read this, I know all of you are dying to know, how I will do that. So am I!!
I know that I will focus on this newsletter more– I have some special guests lined up for coming editions. And I will spend as much time painting and drawing as I can. I will plan my wedding and work my job. And post on Instagram more in the hopes of being magically “discovered.” I will go for runs and get nine hours of sleep and organize studio visits. But mostly, I will just keep trying to make my paintings better.
Thank you all for reading and have a good week
Best,
Claire
What’s For Dinner?
Cornbread and Chili— Our go-to Sunday Night classic.
Michael is moving up in the world-Editor-in-chief🥳
Clarita, your way is your best way, that is your strength, take your time, your Abuelas know.