hampered perception

Last week I was working on a painting of my brother. Whenever I stepped back to look at the whole of it I felt nauseous and anxious. I assumed that it just wasn’t right, my gut was telling me.

The more I worked on it the more my body began to react to the image on the canvas. As I was near, and working it seemed right, felt right. I would step away and feel frantically unsatisfied. Even thinking about it now, I’m a little queasy.

Come Sunday, I couldn’t get my eyes to focus on the canvas at all. At first I thought I was intellectually rejecting the painting, but my vision didn’t get any better as I spent time away from the canvas. I realized that the issue was stemming from my physical vision, not my intangible one. I went to the optometrist and the prescription for my lenses has changed quite a bit, and overnight it seems.

 The first thing I saw when I got into my home from getting my new lenses was the painting. I turned the light on and CLICK, I immediately saw the problem, the eyes and the perspective of the hat. It’s the same thing that happened with the second painting of Cozette (04/04/2011), which I walked away from before I was satisfied. I’ve promised myself that I’m not giving up on this one. I’m going to take the opportunity to turn this into a learning experience and solve this. My goal is to work with what I have already done, not start over. Stay tuned....

Self-Portrait 08/07/11

I've been away from painting for a couple months. I decided to return to it by means of self portraiture. I'm looking at this paining adjacent to the self portrait I did in February (which was the painting the truly spring boarded this blog) and I am.... I'm excited. Over the recent six months I can see more confidence and more personality in the work.

 

 

Self-Portrait 02/14/11

I  fell away from painting before finishing one of the Marie paintings. I think I'll ride this excitement and return to her, give her a mouth; she deserves a mouth.

hand in pocket

I realized tonight that I paint with my hand in my pocket.

As you can see, I'm working on a painting. I hope to have it finished tomorrow. I need to walk away to give my body a rest, some counter posturing is needed.

I would like to take a moment to comment though, it's Lucille Ball's 100th birthday. Happy Birthday Lucy where ever you may be, and thank you. She was a remarkable woman. She had a plethora of misfires in her career before her landmark television series. She was 40 years old when I Love Lucy first aired; a testament to her persistence and resilience. An inspiration.