About Me
Planning my next work of art
Whether it's the proportions of a face in a restaurant, the lines of a car passing on the highway, the spacing of trees along a fence row, the shapes of clouds, the beauty for me is primarily in the composition.
And that's what I'm doing in my artwork. It's a long game I'm playing with outlines and colors and their relationships.
These two chowder heads show up in my work a lot. The most important people in my world
I've had art training at Sanderson Highschool in Raleigh, NC, at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, and at UNC Chapel Hill. A few things have stuck with me over the years.
If I show up at the page and just do five minutes, I'll be hooked.
If I fail to show up at the page for more than a few days I get grumpy.
When I'm totally out of control, the art is in trouble. When I'm pretending to be in control the art is in worse trouble.
My left brain often needs music with words, so it will get out of the way and let the right brain draw or paint. I usually work with headphones on. It's the best when I realize hours later that my ears hurt from the headphones, the music stopped a long time ago, and I have no idea when.
My right brain would rather paint something fun, my left brain would rather paint something good. My right brain is the artist, my left brain is the art critic or the art dealer. According to Aristotle my artist acts, while my critic moves. If my critic would move so he was out of the picture...
Or, in the words of one art professor, whose advice I could not take at the time, "Paint what you want to - all the rest is crap." (Marvin Saltzman) Possibly the truest words I ever heard in art classes.
And another art mentor, "Do you really want to do those tight renderings? They would sell, but are you having any fun? Look at this book of paintings by Hundertwasser." (Bob Rankin)
Don't be afraid to use supplies; don't be afraid to screw up; "You've got to get over that fear right now;" (Bob Rankin, again, overheard using those words to someone else at the Artarama vendor show this year - I grinned with deja vu).
It's got to be play or it doesn't work.