"Katie"
11X14
oil
I have, in fact, been painting this week. Sometimes I have a
painting job to do – a commission, or a request for more lighthouses,
landscapes or…whatever, from a gallery. But sometimes when I’ve finished a
piece, I have leftover paints on my palette. And since I don’t want to waste
perfectly good paint…I will experiment. It’s one of my favorite things to do,
in my artistic life. Sometimes.
The only drawback is that, as in any form of
experimentation, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I like
the experiment enough to incorporate it into my painting style. When the
experiment takes a wrong turn, then I question my own worth as a human being.
Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. But experimenting brings
both agony and ecstasy. Are any of you old enough to remember that intro to the
“Wonderful World of Sports” (or some such overblown title)? Remember when the
announcer got to “the agony of defeat”, and that poor skier went flying
uncontrollably off the ski jump and into the crowd? That poor guy. I wonder if
his name was Hans.
Anyway…occasionally I have an experiment that goes wrong,
and for the rest of the day (or week) I feel like poor Hans. Why did I ever think I could be a painter? I
could be an accountant sitting at my desk like a regular person…with a regular
paycheck. But who am I kidding? I hate numbers and math way too much to be
an accountant.
Hans had to ski…I have to paint. Fortunately, last weeks’
adventures in experimentation went okay. I don’t know that I’ve made any kind
of mind-boggling breakthroughs, but every experiment has value. Even the ones
that go awry. At least you can incorporate it into your artistic toolbox under
the title “never, ever do this again”.
And even more fortunately for me, unlike the pitiable Hans,
a mishap in the art studio seldom results in broken bones. And I seldom have to
do math.
I wonder whatever happened to Hans. Now that’s all I’ll be
able to think about for the rest of the afternoon. Sometimes it’s hard to be
me.
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