Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Pin cushion Art Journal painting



As always, the painting never looks like the image I carry in my head. 
As always it has a mind of its own.
 This worries me. This image on my canvas is alien to me.
 I don’t know where it came from. But, I am committed to follow.
 I must own it.  


I must own the happy faces that are not as dramatic as I planned.
 I must own the quilted background that is too overwhelming. 
 There is so much I want to add to the painting, but already it is busy busy busy. 
I am not surprised. Busy has become my signature.
 I have no control.
 I must own busy busy busy. 
It is a perfect representation of what is in my head.
 Too many ideas. Expectations. Dreams.
 All fighting to be heard and hoping for a spot on the canvas.


 I pine for simplicity. I envy the uncomplicated. 
But that is not me.

1 comment:

  1. It IS incredibly busy - but I interpret that as being the point (intentional or not). To me, the composition is the "noise" of life in our heads. The fact that the faces aren't happier is, I believe, one of the strengths of the piece. Had they been jovial - it might make the painting a really frightening. Odd to say that the personalities in those faces seem to be the reality of perhaps loved ones' personalities (or perhaps just circumstances or parts of your own personality) as you might see them - and despite the more serious & more quiet natures they bring to your mind, you count them among the bubbly-cacophony that is life as you know it. You even have them rising from or at least supported by the "luck" (tomato-symbol) that you've placed with them as the center subject of the piece. YOU may not have intended the piece to come out looking exactly like this - but it appears as if at least a part of you got to say exactly what it wanted to express anyway. ;-) MOST artists use color to draw attention to the most important subject in their work - YOU - with your busy mind - seem to value calm more & so use the LACK of color instead. It's powerful. Lastly I do notice, just off the dog's left ear - nearly exact center, a blurred shape, that partially obscures the background patterns in a circular area...leaves me wondering if there isn't another calm "personality" drawing into existence there, perhaps to appear with the current characters later in another piece. (But then - I've always been told I make things more complicated than they are - so - you're not alone there. ;-) Thanks for posting this piece Judy!

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