Daniel Gottschalk

As another season has come to pass there is a lot of work, relationships with friends and classmates, and plans worth reassessing and to reflect upon.

While not a new concept, the best projects that have gotten me the most praise and excitement have most always been the longest in time and greatest in challenge. Old news to many and myself, yet this concept has once again kicked me in the rear and knocked me down to prove the point once more. I assume I will be forced by another project soon and reminded yet again. Not to say it is an issue but rather a semi-regular event I must attend as a party of one. Maybe one day it will become less of a new novel event feeling and more a stroll down a worn path that comes with knowledge, comfort, and control.

For my relationships there is much to be desired in many regards. Most notably is the desire to not lose the time with them. As years have gone by so many friends have graduated from university, gotten jobs, and started new lives. Once again, none of which is necessarily bad, rather in these cases I’m quite sorrowful. I am wholly delighted that my friends are excelling and moving onto the greater and grander but to say I won’t miss them and their delightful attitudes and skills in the art settings in which I have come to enjoy them would be a lie. While I have a clear disregard for painting in most forms some of my best times were spent with some of my best friends jokingly going back and forth about how the colors were wrong and how maybe a flower wasn’t looking happy  enough since the scale was off or rather the shape was peculiar. It is in those moments when you get a tough critique from someone, and you know you have no other option than to fix it, then and only then after the change is made and you come together with excitement from that solution do you know that person is a true friend. Speaking freely against you because they want better work and know you can do it. If they didn’t trust your capabilities, they would have stayed silent. Thus, a goal following this season will be to continue and encourage great friendships and relationships with others to make future projects come together to the finest they can be.

One of the more unfortunate revelations of this last season has been regarding my grand final gallery show. As limitations of time become clearer, projects have shifted around. Whereas a person without the  knowledge of what hasn’t happened or what cannot occur may not see the issue, it is I alone that feels the gloom of the ideas or plans that won’t be able to make the cut. Possibly with enough time put into extra late nights in the studio I might be able to reclaim some and create everything on my long list of projects. Only time will tell as the seasons progress. Especially with a summer full of work to be done!

-Dan