This is Jason Sho Green, a second-year painting major at the Academy. I’m currently writing on the train from Madrid to Barcelona, on my way to Paris in a few days to meet up with the rest of the Terra Foundation/Giverny Residency group.
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| JFK [airport] gives you plenty of time on the runway to work on cabin interior drawings… |
The sponsors of the residency were graciously flexible with our flight tickets, so the eight of us are flying into various cities in Europe and converging on August 9 in Giverny. I just stayed four days in Madrid, spending most of my time between the Prado and Reina Sofia in the good company of Goya, Velazquez, Ribera, Picasso. I’m on my way to Barcelona to check out the more contemporary scene and hang out on the beach a bit. Then most of the group is meeting up for a weekend in Paris before we take the train up to Giverny.
Giverny is a small village, about 45 minutes outside of Paris by train, where Monet spent the latter 40-ish years of his life. Being half Japanese with French ancestry, I’ve always had a thing for Monet and his embrace of Japonisme, and am excited to explore these intersections down the street from his old studio and estate.
A little background about me: I got my undergrad degree in electrical engineering, then worked as a self-taught artist and illustrator for a few years, entered into an atelier in Seattle for two years, and now am at the New York Academy of Art. This summer I’ve explored methods of analyzing my painting process, including stop motion animation, working on top of old paintings, and assembling pieces of previously finished works into new ones. I’ve also been trying to slip out of some of the academic stiffness (sorry, faculty – I love you all) that I’ve acquired over the past couple years.
I am a ravenous sketchbook filler, so please also check out jasonshogreen.blogspot.com where I post drawings and experiments pretty close to daily. I’ll be back here with an overview of my project once we all meet up in Paris!