Imagine if you were trying to climb a mountain and instead of a rope hanging down from the top, there was a thread. If you wanted to get to the top badly enough you could find a way to do it, the thread would still lead to the summit even if there was a constant risk of it snapping. To the part time artist, the mountain is always being scaled by a thread. Others, using a rope, will get there much quicker, will race past you, but remember your thread is also attached to the top and if you keep your long term goal in mind, you might eventually get there. Connected to your thread, and adding strength to it, is the accumulation of knowledge and work that you've achieved on your journey. A thread can be a hard thing to find if you let go of it, and that's why it's important to find time to do your work every day. Even if it seems like the amount of time is never enough, inch by inch you are making progress.
    I've been following my thread now going on thirty years, and sometimes I've scaled in leaps and bounds and at other times I've proceeded at a snails pace. Yet I've always had the discipline to come home after my day job and get those two or three hours in the studio. I knew that if I ever stopped doing my art that I would lose my thread and that I would never find it again. When I decided that I wanted Classical Realist training in an atelier, I knew that I was going to meet some formidable obstacles. Atelier training is really designed for full time study. I study one day a week. Yet, strangely enough, I don't feel like a part time student, because I process what I'm learning, in my studio, the remaining twenty hours a week (more during holidays and summer). And I can see myself making progress. I'm arriving at the same base camps as the rope climbers, it's just taking me a little longer to get there.
     Soon I will be finished with what will be my last cast drawing for a while. I've been studying at the Grand Central Academy since January, not including the summer. My instructor feels that I've pretty much got the hang of it and I'm ready to move on to cast painting. This fits right in to my long range plans. After a year of cast painting I plan to move into figure drawing and then figure painting. Another two years of part time study, at least. One advantage the part time student has over the full time student is that all the while that I'm studying I'm still doing my own work. Full time atelier study leaves little time for much else. I would advise any student involved in full time study to try and find time to do their own paintings because you need a lot of time on the pallete. It's not just about training, it's experential. You need to make a lot of bad paintings before you can start to make some good ones.
      If you make it up that mountain, you will have a lot to be proud of, because you did it the hard way. At the atelier where I study I see some amazing things being done. Young (and some not so young) full time students progressing at an exciting pace. I can see their progress and their work ethic (they put in a lot of hours), and it doesn't discourage me at all. I see their achievements as glimpses of places I will come to as I climb my mountain. Kind of like when you're reading a really good book and you skim  ahead a little bit to see what's coming. When I reach each milestone I know that I also have worked hard to get there and it motivates me to push myself even harder. Even though I've been talking about climbing a mountain, for me, reaching the top has never really been the point. The mountain climber must feel a mixture of elation and sadness. They've reached the top but the climb is over. I know that pushing myself to make the journey is a goal in itself and I relish every challenge that comes my way. As a marathon runner I know that the best part of the marathon is not the finish line. It's not even the race. It's the training sessions leading up to the race. Plotting those miles on a chart, knowing that when you make that last little mark on your schedule you are ready to run a marathon. Awesome.