Join a Figure Drawing Class with Me

I really enjoy life drawing, but I’ve been struggling to find space and time for it, especially since I can’t attend an in-person class.

Luckily, Oxygen Art Centre, based in Nelson, is offering an online figure drawing class! The only thing is, in order for the class to run, I need at least 6 more people to register alongside me.

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at figure drawing? This is a 5-class session done over zoom, providing an opportunity to draw a model from the comfort of your own home.

There’s no instruction, which means you get to play and experiment and just see how it turns out!

Will you join me? The deadline to claim a spot is Thursday, November 9th. Register here.

If we can make this class popular, they’ll be more likely to offer an online option again. For someone who can’t attend in-person classes, this accessible option is huge.

Accessibility Should Be the Standard

I recently met with an arts council near me to discuss accessibility and how to ensure it’s more of an integration than an option.

The biggest and best part about this is that it’s actually really easy to include folks like me. Host an event on Zoom, open a discord channel, record the event and make the video available after the fact, etc.

One thing to keep in mind is that providing accessibility should not create weight on the people you’re trying to include. We don’t want anyone to feel obligated or shamed into attending when the option should already be there in the first place.

 Accessibility should be the norm, not only upon request.

Decentering Able Bodies

This is not just about accessibility, but about decentering healthy and able bodies. This should not be considered the blueprint anymore, especially considering there are able-bodied folks that become disabled every day.

It’s much less likely for someone living with a disability to become able-bodied.

There are so many people out there who are forced to function with invisible disabilities that aren’t being accommodated by their workplace, the people in their lives, or society as a whole.

Cultivating accessibility means creating opportunities for more people to connect with us. For me, it’s important to experience people connecting with my art.

The arts council and I talked about creating a QR code for each of my pieces that would link people to a 1 minute video explaining my inspiration for the piece.

This is a great idea! But it’s still only going one way.

I really crave that feedback from people who experience my art. 

Give Me the Feedback

It’s rare that I get to see my art reflected in someone else’s eyes.

As an artist, it’s important for me to understand the impact I’m making on the world and the people around me. 

While I do get some feedback in comments and messages and all that stuff over social media, it’s not quite the same as hearing from someone who is standing in front of my art and looking right at it.

Until I recently had an idea…

Tune in next week for all of the details!