Hellooooo, Blue Moon!

 

Okay, the cat is unrelated (except that I like him), but I have news!

Back in mid-November I got a call from a marketing firm in Colorado, looking for artists to be part of a community campaign for Blue Moon Beer. This was exciting for many reasons, one of which is that Blue Moon has been a favorite of mine for years. But it was hardly a done deal; I still had to audition, as it were.

And then, as one might expect, I had to wait and see. Well, the waiting is over:

I'M ON THE BLUE MOON TEAM!

I'll update with more info when I have it, but essentially what this means is, I'll be at local events at local establishments, helping regular folks paint a large and very cool Blue Moon painting which will stay in that bar once the event is over. I love to teach, love to talk to people, and have found beer to be a wonderful means of getting folks past their fear of picking up a paintbrush, so I think this is going to be really, really fun.

They're flying me to Denver next month for a day of training. I can't wait. When we start to schedule actual events, I'll post them here, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Ever taken art classes? How did it go?

Most of you know that I teach adult beginners and some intermediate classes (those are much harder to fill because the vast majority of people are beginners).

There are some things I've heard over and over again about peoples' previous experiences:

"My instructor said I had no talent."

"Someone made fun of me and I quit."

"I didn't really learn much."

"It was great, but then I [got married/moved/had a child/insert other life-altering event]."

Because I'm always looking to improve as an instructor, I'd like to hear whether you've ever taken art classes (yes, high school counts) and what you thought. What you got, or didn't get, out of the experience. Was it great, or awful, or somewhere in between? Do you still draw, paint, whatever it was, or did you stop? Be anonymous if you like; I don't mind.