(Featured Image: “Reraise, Douce!” by Timothy Reynolds. Charcoal and pastel, 10 by 11 inches.)
NEW YORK—Imagine a place where a master will teach you to draw and paint like a god, bend light onto canvas, and give you the tools to create impossible worlds in charcoal and oils. What’s more, you’d get free room, board, and tuition so you can focus on the art.
Here’s the best part: this place exists. But here’s the catch: only 10 exceptionally dedicated students get accepted each year.
Ani Art Academies look like ordinary realist ateliers from the outside—rigorous training, strict adherence to representational standards—but their mode of operating and larger purpose are unexpected. Ani takes the most crucial fundamentals of creating fine art—something many consider rarefied or mysterious—and just gives it away…
Reraise, Deuce! in a Niche
The man in Timothy J. Reynolds’ charcoal sketch,
Reraise, Deuce! has a joker plastered to his head.
He looks befuddled in the corner; and, instead
of glee [One wonders what the biggest bet will fetch.],
he looks astounded at his state…right…at the edge.
His shirt is open at the neck. He’s been misled.
Appearing comical, a jester in this dead
eternal foyer, he assumes he has no hedge.
His smirk, his well-kempt hair, his knotted brow, and chin,
all show that he’s been in the trenches for some time;
but also that he’s laughing at a recent win,
as well as an escape from some well-hidden crime;
one that, perhaps, René Magritte himself was in—
a wild, poker card freed from the hands of rhyme.