Revelation From a Quote

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I've been regularly updating this blog for awhile now and I have a confession to make: It is incredibly difficult! Not the posting part, but the actual talking-about-my-art part. Some of my work is tied very specifically to a certain memory, event, or emotion. But the majority of it is simply a result of me doing what I love to do. I don't have a lot to say about these ones other than, "Look what I did!" But you, dear reader, deserve more than that. So I try, really try, to say something about each piece I post. Sometimes when I don't have much to say about a certain piece I feel bad. Like I'm cheating it out of something that makes it a little more complete. 

To some extent this is simply a product of our times. A hundred years ago... ten years ago even... an artist would make art and it would just be all on its own. If the artist was noticed at all, other people might talk about it, discuss its meaning, critique the composition, or verbally rip it to shreds. The artist might be called upon to answer a few questions, but they were not necessarily expected to do all the talking. With the advent of the internet, we are now called upon to do our own talking in order to get noticed enough that other people will talk, too. It's like skipping a step and going backward a few steps at the same time.

I came across a quote from the French poet Jean Cocteau today that really resonated with me: "An artist cannot talk about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture." All this stress over thinking of something noble, or at least coherent, to say about each completed painting finally makes sense! It's stressful because it feels unnatural and it feels unnatural because it IS. This is not to say I will be dropping the commentary from my blog. But I will be writing about artwork when it feels right for that piece, but not stress about it if there's not much to say. Sometimes, "Look what I did!" is really all there is.

Artwork above is a portrait of Jean Cocteau by Amadeo Modigliani.

Finally Coming to My Senses...

I've been blogging for my businesses for several years but, until now, not for my art. That changes today!

My interest in art began at the age of six with a stack of hand-me-down Walter Foster "Learn to Draw" books. My interest in painting really blossomed in high school when Mrs. Garver introduced us to oil paints. Until that point I had only used watercolors and other translucent paints and hated the softness of the results. But oil paints were so different - depth, strength, body, opacity, endless adventures in color mixing, even the smell of turpentine - I loved it all! Today I predominantly use acrylics, but still like to catch a whiff of turp every now and then.

In my paintings I really try to capture the underlying emotions of my subject. Insecurity, vulnerability, doubt, fear... The feelings we all try to hide are the ones I want to explore with my art. Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Painting is how I examine life, my own and that of others; and it's what makes my life feel purposeful and "worth living".

I'll be working on posting my painting archive as well as new works as they are completed. When I look at works by other artists, I often wonder about the back story of the piece. I assume other people wonder this same thing so I'll be including a little back story on each piece. Enjoy!