I went to a private art school for college, though sadly the majority of my time was spent on the computer. It wasn't like SCADD or some traditional art school that has you spend all your time in art history, and then in the evening spending ours on charcoal drawings of nude models. While I have gotten a taste of both of those things, it was certainly not the focus.

I was always extremely shy of the nude models. In fact in Jr. College the year before art school I took an evening drawing class for fun, and we did charcoal drawings of nudes all the time. At the time I was... erm well extremely naive about "boys" and when we had an older male model come in, I positioned my easel so that I was looking at his back side. I have no problem drawing butts, I was determined however not to have to draw his nuts and berries.

The class had a lot of adults in it because it was in the evenings, I was about 18 or 19 at the time. They all poked fun at me and got a good laugh over the fact that I wouldn't look at the guy until I knew he was positioned properly. I would look at my pencils, my paper or go wash my hands 3 times. I would turn beat red when the classmates teased me. I look back on those memories fondly. Maybe one day I'll photograph one of my drawings for you. I did the best drawings of my lifetime in that class. The teacher was wonderful. He told me I was "uninhibited" in my drawing style and that's what made it so unique. I was never meant to be an artist, and I never had much consistency in my technique, I just had no idea what I was doing so I didn't care. I still enjoyed it.

Sometimes in life we get very special compliments that stick with us for life, that art teacher saying my drawings had been uninhibited will always stick with me. Another moment that sticks with me is when I was at the pirvate art college, and the history professor that everyone just adored, I never had him for a class but I knew him. One day I was walking to my car and he was walking in. He stopped me on the side walk and said that he had just come back from a trip to Italy and he had seen some Sandro Botticelli paintings, and that I looked remarkably like one of them. That was truly the biggest compliment I have ever received in my life. We all deserve to be a tad vain now and then. I am a girl and I have my moments of deep self loathing in my hair, my pimples and my freckles, and then I have moments where I feel hot and sexy. I don't know why so many girls in our culture feel this way about ourselves, but sometimes we simply can't help it.

So Botticelli paintings make my happy for that reason, but I actually had quit a thing for them prior to that compliment, which was one reason it meant so much. The "Adobe Illustrator" application icon is actually the Venus face from one of Botticelli's paintings.

Sandro Botticelli Gallery