No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
-George Eliot
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I came across this older piece from back in early 2001. I remember this piece, an 18″ by 26″ painting on paper called Siesta, very well. I recall being conflicted on this piece. On one hand, I liked it very much for its simple construction and the ease with which it seemed to evoke its emotion. But there was a part of me that felt it was too contrived or too thought out– it was just trying too hard.
Or so it seemed at the time.
But with fifteen years between us, I began to just look at it just as it is. The things I liked about it then I liked just as much now. Maybe more because it has a simplicity and ease that I now know is a very hard thing to capture. I find myself being less bothered by the subject, by the idea of the sun hanging as a disc from the tree limb. It just doesn’t seem too matter to me now in this piece. It’s like the positive parts far outweigh what I once felt were negatives.
And that goes to the quote at the top from George Eliot. Our perceptions and interpretations change as we ourselves change with age and experience. I often run across my own work that I either liked or disliked at one point. But time finds me now feeling very much different about some of these pieces.
And there are some about which I feel absolutely the same, good or bad. Maybe it’s that some things just don’t change or maybe it’s that I have to age and grow a bit more.
We’ll give that a shot.
This is one of the new pieces I have been working on. I wasn’t sure I wanted to show it in this state, as it is unfinished, or even when it is finished. But as it progressed it began to grow on me and was meeting my expectations for what I wanted from it. So, I thought I would show it and talk a bit about this piece, a 12″ by 24″ canvas that I tentatively calling Frank the Icon.
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover through the detours of art those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.
Another Thanksgiving and it might seem that it would be hard to find much to be thankful for in this turbulent world with its endless cornucopia of anger, hatred, intolerance, injustice and inequality set out for our consumption each day. With a diet of so many negatives it would be easy to forget that one simple thing that truly feeds and sustains us– gratitude.
I’ve been taking a stained glass class for a few weeks now, trying to shake up my routine and thought process a bit. In going over my work there with the instructor who is teaching me on a one-to-one basis, I try to explain that while I am seeking to learn proper technique I am not shooting for perfection. I am looking for expression and things like rhythm and harmony. It made me think of the painting above , Seeking Imperfection, which was the title piece for my second show at the Principle Gallery back in 2001. I am re-running a post from a few years back that better explains my search for the not-perfect aspects of our world.
There’s nothing I’m afraid of like scared people.
Redtree Times 