Monday, March 4, 2013

From a Face to Fish

It's not a secret that I love to paint over my paintings(much to my husbands chagrine "what painting did you wreck to make that one?")  hmm that didn't sound right....  but I find starting with a blank surface a real detriment to my creative process.  The paintings I choose to paint over are either ones that I don't feel strongly about, conjure up a negative feeling or just won't sell. The following example is one that brought up some negative emotions.  It instigated a facebook conversation with a very well-renowned artist.  I'm all for artistic banter but his was just plain mean-spirited-not constructive.  And it wasn't just about the one below but others I posted as well.  Talk about tapping into my insecurities.

So here is an example of turning something that evoked an unpleasant memory to something that made me very happy!  And it would not have turned out this way had there not been an under-painting.

This is on exhibit and for sale at Translations Gallery in Canton, Ohio in celebration of Theodor Suess Geisel's 109th birthday.  One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish was the book I chose as an inspiration.
one fish, two fish and more  11x11 2013

5 comments:

  1. Very smart. Love it.

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  2. There are a lot of mean spirits out there, not sure what it stems from - their own stuff, I guess, as in baggage stuff - as someone who was very wounded in the past by such things too, it's always helpful to take it and make it your own positive- so bravo.

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  3. You're a good writer as well. I didn't know you had a blog. I like the idea of reworking old artwork, even to the point of nearly total "redoing."

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