Portrait Painting

People surprise me.
Steve is one of the techs at the hospital that works graveyard shifts. He's older, a grandpa actually with 15 grandchildren. But he's also so nice and helpful when I work the swing shifts. The other night he brought in some of his paintings that he did in Zions National Park and also a portrait of his son. Blown away. That's what I was. It was like he was a double agent living this night life of x-ray tech while painting the days away. He teaches an art class in Provo. He told me that he's always looking for models to come in for his class to paint. (Portraits mind you.) I was immediately interested for reasons that I wasn't quite sure of at the time. It sounded like a new opportunity to do something (slightly strange) that I had never done before. If anything, I would most likely just get an intriguing story from it.

The class is held above a cozy little art shop on the corner of Center Street and Freedom Boulevard in Provo. The tables were splattered with paint and easels were stacked in the corner. There were only a few of us. I'm guessing the other students were intimidated by the idea of painting a portrait so they didn't show up. I don't blame them.

It's amazing and humbling to find out how much you really don't know about something. For one, the beginning process of painting a picture. The questions and preparations astound me. Lighting? Plain white canvas or painted canvas? Colors to use? Method? Sketch with pencil or paint? Placement on the canvas?

Steve likes to prepare all of his colors first. It's a mathematical equation mixing those colors. It's a science, an art. Understanding color and then being able to see it takes skill I don't understand and can't explain.

I feel like I can hardly describe in an adequate way the learning I gained just by being a model for this small art class. I wish people would take more time to understand the complexities and skills of other hobbies and trades. There is so much that goes on under the surface of everything we do. I'm starting to understand that with my x-ray program. Especially with my physics class in learning how exactly x-rays are made, how they interact with matter, with film. How kVp and mAs affect the type of x-rays you're producing. There's so much more then just pushing a button. There's anatomy, understanding body placement and positioning, physics and pathology.

I want to learn and understand everyday. I want to try out new experiences. That's what I loved so much about being a portrait model for this art class - the opportunity to be around something I don't understand, to see the process. It was a new experience. One that most people have never done. (Of course everyone I told about modeling for an art class looked at me weird with that I-hope-you're-modeling-nude look.)
But it gave me an appreciation. One: for the people capable of such art and two: for the opportunity that people have to enjoy the arts. John Adams once said, "I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."