Artistic experiences: part 5, the League
Five days before my 21st birthday I left my old life behind and started my new life. With all my possessions in two large suitcases I boarded a train for New York and checked into the 63rd Street YMCA. I knew I had to find a job and an apartment but the first thing I did was register for a class at the Art Students League. I purchased a big newsprint pad and some vine charcoal, headed up to the second floor, found an empty chair and started to draw. I never felt more alive. As the weeks passed by I found a place to live and got a job working at a concession stand in Carnegie Hall, half a block from the League. I would visit galleries and museums in the morning, draw at the League in the afternoon and listen to the concerts while I worked in the evening. My cultural life was definitely improving. The instructor in my first class was nice enough but more encouraging than instructive. I was hungry to learn and switched to Hale’s anatomy class. Robert Beverly Hale was a legendary anatomy teacher and I drank in as much as I could. I couldn't learn fast enough. I practiced drawing boxes of all sizes and lighting them from different directions. I worked hard on shading forms from light to dark and drawing lines that went around those forms. Soon I found myself reading and copying out of anatomy books at midnight when I got home from work. During the breaks in my drawing class I would wander around the League poking my head into the painting classes. I knew I had to improve my drawing skills but I was eager to paint…..
Drawings and paintings in varying states of completion by Thomas Torak with comments, observations and musings by the artist. All images on this blog are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without permission.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Studio Interior
44 x 54 Oil on Linen
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2 comments:
you made the right decision to leave your old life behind, now you're blessing the world with your gift.
PS I lived at that YMCA too for about half a year when I first came to NYC so I share your misery in that!!
I stopped dead in my tracks when I came across this image, Tom. There is such a "there there" - to borrow from GS. I couldn't agree more with Walter.
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