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Where's the studio?

98 King St. N., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

(which is above McPhail's bicycle store
at the corner of King & Young in Uptown Waterloo)

As always, I teach in small classes. As of the summer 2005 expansion, I work with a maximum of ten students in most classes; at most eight in the Great Big Drawing and Great Big Painting courses. Private classes are available by appointment, mostly weekends, starting from $40.00/hour.

I worry when you're not in class. Please call if you expect to be late or absent. Thanks.

I do not automatically reserve places in class for returning students. Registration is first-paid, first-served for all students every term.

There are only four basic rules at the big black pig studio.

1. Don't put down anyone's work, especially your own.
2. Don't lick the brushes.
3. No adult slave labour.
4. You can quit but you can't whine.

We start most classes with short exercises to help students-kids and adults alike-to practise skills, to brainstorm, and to try out ideas. This is how you acquire the most important habit of highly-effective artists: using a sketchbook. It's the best How-To-Draw book of all.

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I have a few hours each week when I can offer private lessons, generally on Sunday afternoons, prices starting from $40/hour. You can also arrange to take semi-private lessons with a friend (two folks pay $45/hour total) as long as you're working on similar projects. Students are usually responsible for providing their own materials.

My primary teaching focus is on drawing and painting. You might want to visit me for

One-on-one critique

of a work in progress.

Intensive tutoring

in a specific topic, such as perspective, colour theory, or an introduction to a new paint medium.

Family class

such as parent-and-child painting, or all-in-the-family paper marbling. You're not just making art, you're making memories. Now that's quality time.

Portfolio review

for students preparing for college applications and portfolio interviews. Don't leave it too late. In general, you need 12 to 15 kick-ass pieces of work in your portfolio before February of the year you hope to be admitted. Get in to see me while there's still time for you to develop some more great pieces. But don't waste my time--and yours--by coming before you've done your homework. Be ready to show me a dozen of your best artworks (from home, from high school, or from extracurricular classes such as at the big black pig studio). You will also need to study, and bring, the complete admission requirements of every school you're considering.

If you come in during grade eleven, or earlier, I can help you prepare a portfolio plan and offer some education and career guidance.

If you come in during your last year of high school, or as a mature student preparing your application for the upcoming academic year, you should already have more than ten works of portfolio quality. I'll let you know if you're there, help you identify your strongest work, and suggest a few projects that would fill the gaps.

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I try to keep this simple*. That's mostly for my sake; I like teaching more than paperwork, and I like drawing more than phone calls**.

I don't mess around with deposits and fancy forms. To sign up for a class, you pay for it. All of it. In advance***. The simplest fair system I've been able to devise is that I book students' places in each class in the order that I receive payment. If this is a problem financially, please speak to me in private. Perhaps I can arrange to share the burden with you.

For classes at the pig, my best advice is to register early. The first day of registration for the coming school year is on a Saturday between my winter and spring terms, typically late March. Many people actually wait in line to be sure of getting their preferred class time. It's a crazy morning, but it's my way of giving everyone a fair chance. (No inside track for returning students, no skyrocketing course fees, no early birds.) If you'd like to get in on the first day of registration, all you need to know is that I set the date by February. Call the studio, email, or check the web page in February to get the date and make your plans to drop by. Coffee's on me!

People who don't attend the first day of registration can continue to register throughout the year on a first-come, first-served basis. But the big black pig studio is a small special place and I don't have room for a lot of students. The best way to be sure of a place is to register early.

If you're registering after the first day, you might call ahead (884-7355) to confirm that there's still space available. If you're ready to commit, I will hold that space for a day while I wait for payment. How do you pay?

1. Arrange an appointment to drop off payment with me in person; or,
2. Drop off your cheque in my mailbox at street level. I will call to confirm that I've received it safely.

Here's the thing. I hate:

1. Giving Bad News, and
2. Talking About Money.

If you know in June that your daughter wants to take lessons all year, please consider prepaying to ensure that she gets a place in all three terms. Otherwise, newcomers often snatch up those January spots before the fall term's half over. I hate disappointing your kids. If your son's too late to join a class, ask me to put him on the waiting list. If another student has a change in plans, I'll make a lightning round of phone calls to see who wants to leap in on short notice. Maybe your son's the one.

I'm happy to let students pre-register with post-dated cheques (to May 1, for fall classes; November 1, for winter classes; February 1 for spring classes). Maybe you'd like to spread the expense over the year. But this is the only break I offer. Everything else is Talking About Money. No discount for siblings, seniors, or skipped classes. If my mother took a class here, she'd pay full price.

My prices are fair, and you and I are both too busy to dicker.

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About Linda Carson, "the person behind the pig"

I established the big black pig studio in the summer of 1994, which means that I've been teaching art in Waterloo for more than a decade. I never imagined that it would go so well or that I would love doing this so much. I'm a working artist and playwright, and the full-time "person behind the pig." I came to the University of Waterloo in 1977 to study mathematics--seven work terms and two schools elsewhere, but look where I am again. My first undergraduate degree is in math, my second is in art, and I earned my masters degree in fine art at the University of Saskatchewan. I spent six months at the Royal College of Art in London, England, studying bronze casting and printmaking. Then I came back to KW and decided that rather than look for a day job, I'd make one teaching art in my own studio. It worked. In my abundant spare time I recently earned a Master's degree in science at U.W., trying to better understand how we learn to draw.

I've been married to science fiction writer James Alan Gardner for more than twenty years and he's still the funniest wise man I know. We live in a 1910 work-in-progress in central Kitchener with a small sincere rabbit named Basil and Belle-the-interloper-bunny and more books than my first high school library.

Somebody should warn folks that entrepreneur is a fancy word for "a person who runs a business and sweeps the floor." Why do I do this? Because I love art, people and teaching. I love the daily challenge of figuring out how to motivate and instruct each student in the way that works best for him or her. I love watching people paint, and making people laugh while they do it. I love seeing kids come alive when they meet a tough goal. I love watching adults get messy. I love keeping current, trying new media, and turning a student on to an artist they've never heard of.

Since celebrating my ten-year anniversary, I also love watching "my kids" growing up: starting high school, learning to drive (!), and sometimes putting together a portfolio to go to art school themselves.

I believe an art studio should be a joyous, funny, supportive environment, a place where everyone feels comfortable trying challenging new things. I believe in teaching creative process alongside fundamental techniques. I believe every artist needs to know how to handle their tools and materials safely, and how to shop wisely. I believe that if I do my job right, every student's work will be unique to that individual rather than a clone of my own stuff. I believe that studying art changes how we see, for the better.

If the big black pig studio sounds like a place you'd like to spend time, give me a call.

Linda Carson

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The pig is a working art studio in Waterloo, Ontario [Canada] where you'll find me, Linda Carson (the person behind the pig), offering art lessons privately and for small groups.

For the latest snail-mailing on course offerings at the pig, call 519-884-7355 and leave a cheery message (including your name and your complete mailing address). The pig is not a prompt e-correspondent.

For that authentic small-town feel, the big black pig studio is located above McPhail's bicycle shop and next door to the Harmony Lunch at 98 King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario [Canada] N2J 2X4, telephone 519-884-7355.

E-mail linda@bigblackpig.com (that's Linda, the person behind the pig).