Graphically Wrong ????

Speaking of mistakes, or imperfections . . .

This past weekend, at the Carefree Fine Art and Wine Festival, there was a gentleman who walked into my booth and stood in front of one of my paintings for a fairly long time (10 minutes?), which is a pretty long time when it comes to looking at art at an art festival. Anyway, he had one hand on his chin, while nodding his head up and down, then back and forth. I finally walked up and stood beside him and looked at the painting with him. He commented that he liked the painting "A LOT", but that he hates when he finds something that is "Graphically WRONG" about a painting, because then he can’t help but focus on it every time he looks at the painting. I completely understood what he was talking about. I told him that I understood his sentiments, then promptly walked away from him before he had a chance to point out what it was that he had such a problem with -- with this painting. That was the last thing I needed. I didn’t want to know what “his” problem was with it, because then it would eventually become my problem... if I let it. It was better that I didn’t know in that case.

It reminded me of a story about one of my other paintings. Some of my closest friends know the story of the painting in question, which happens to be a favorite piece for many of my customers. This particular painting I’m talking about was one that I painted while I was living in Mexico in 2006. I struggled with it. I just couldn’t get it to do what I wanted it to do. It’s like it laughed at me. There were elements about it that just stood out like a sore thumb. So I packed it away figuring I might feel up to working on it on a clear day. Then when I moved back to the States (Prescott) I decided to pull it back out and make some changes to it to try to fix the problems, because the concept for the painting was something I felt strongly about. But I continued to struggle with it. So…. I finally decided to call it a done deal. It was a “lemon”; there was simply no way I could fix it! So one day I tossed it into the bed of my truck, along with a pile of other paintings that just didn’t make the cut, and headed to the city dump to purge it from my life. After all I could just start all over again with a blank canvas if I really wanted to. While at the dump, I tossed quite a few paintings away onto the blacktop in front of the deep abyss (hole) that the bulldozer would shove the debris in to. After emptying the bed of my truck I slowly walked toward the cab and glanced back to see the bulldozer making a beeline toward my paintings. I suddenly panicked and ran back to the pile of misfit art and salvaged the one painting that I struggled with so much. The one I wanted so much to come to fruition. I tossed it back into the truck and headed home to mend its tattered wounds. I placed it back on my easel, and scraped away at it. I scraped, pushed, pulled, manipulated, and reconfigured it to what “IT” wanted to be (not what “I” wanted it to be). Over the course of several days I finally stood back and was pleased with what I saw. Oh, it still has imperfections that I notice every single time I look it, but I decided that the imperfections represented life! I guess that's why I was so compelled to continue to work on that particular canvas instead of starting over with a fresh, clean one. I guess my lesson was that I needed to learn to accept and look past the imperfections, to notice all the other things that make it so great!!!

If you made it this far.... then I bet you want to know which painting I'm talking about!
Ask me and I might tell you.

Graphically Wrong ????