This sculpture in the courtyard of PAFA is an apt metaphor for my dashed hopes concerning this place. I am preparing for another critique this morning , one might say girding my loins. I don’t think I need to fret too much, today’s critic is an artist who definitely does not adhere to the Smudgy Line School so revered here at the Academy.
But there is loss, loss of a romantic notion perhaps . What I have gained is a clarity of the direction I want to take and PAFA doesn’t seem to be that direction.
To be told that when I am ready to learn, ready to obliterate all I have learnt and experienced and ready to be the empty vessel this experience seems to demand THEN they will be there to make me into a Serious artist.
Thanks, but no thanks.
I feel I dodged a very expensive bullet. Friends , many artists amidst the mix, from Berlin to Portland, have told me of their experiences of academies , of the academic promotion of a certain orthodoxy , of only being able to truly express their creativity after the process . I want to improve my technical skills but I have no interest in erasing what is essential to my work.
My last critic may have felt I needed to destroy my work in order to create the sublime ; I’m going to find another way.
Wish me luck.
Boondocks Babylon 
Leonard: We are all pulling for you…Icarus, you are not….Acadamies have somewhat of a tunnel vision and it has to go only ONE way….this is not for you…You have no need to ‘fly that close to the sun’.,.,Destroy nothing of your inspirations for your work,…(especially Goblin Market.,,I love that work)…Look forward to seeing you soon on Roseview,,,,ciao, DK
Thank you Dan, I’m feeling much better, a better sense of clarity .
The truth is the student life here is very supportive and exciting , I’ve had some excellent feedback from many folks- frequently the young. And I had an incredibly helpful review yesterday . I was stunned not by the criticism but by the intractability of the critics .
So onward, gleaming what I can. Eager to work but also eager to go home. I look forward to having you over, I also have a new studio space in Highland Park, you will need to visit .
Thanks for the support,
Leonard