Painting Perfection. Or Not.
Greetings,
Welcome to the Cooper studio, on duty, in a Lipetsk that is living up to the old Dr Zhivago movie generalization: it's COLD here today!!! Ha. I just cancelled the morning run. THAT cold.
Anyway, not today's subject du jour.
Instead, let's go here:
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 2 Corinthians 11:30
So, I always get a daily verse to my inbox, and this morning THAT is it.
Normally I read before I start painting, but I am trying SO.HARD. to get everything done that I want to say for the upcoming exhibit at QuadCityArts Center in January/February 2017, (link to schedule page) and that caused me to veer from my normal routine and get an underpainting onto a canvas BEFORE reading.
(Seriously, who is still worrying about underpaintings at this stage of the game before an exhibit? Bear in mind these paintings all have to be dry enough to travel with me back to the US December 22.....)
Anyway, back to the verse. And boasting. So I have read enough to know the background for the verse, and why Paul made the statement.
But having just scribbled in an underpainting right before reading the verse, my mind veered into artistland, and all of a sudden I was contemplating the boasting/bragging of artists. We all know some that are loud about it.
-I am a great artist (but can't seem to accomplish anything)
-I am a great artist (and don't my prices prove it?)
-I am a great artist (did you know behind your back people murmur "but my kid could have done that")
-I am a great artist (here, please read my resume and/or flowery artist statement composed of nonsensical, embellishment-al, verbiage)
Artists are not immune to weakness, anymore than all the rest of the human population. But quite often I think it's expected that we have to pretend perfection. I love looking at old masters paintings, and on the rare occasion seeing what I know has to be an (ahem) oopsie. You know, a mistake. Something that happened that the artist didn't really intend. Here's one of my favorites:
-Berthe Morisot, Young Girl Writing-
She is one of my favorites, so I am completely accepting, but next time you get close to this specific work, try to figure out that table leg and her skirt :)
I will confess to having once signed a painting, whereupon my son said, "uh Mom, where's her other leg?"
I think a weakness inherent in a bunch of artists, is that, we get wrapped up in the telling, and little things like body appendages just aren't as important as the normal human accounts for. In the Morisot painting, does the skirt go in front of the table leg, or behind it, or both? But here's the bottom line: the story got told. And don't we love it!!!
So my theory on weaknesses for today
-artists: we all know you have them too. Calm down your arrogance/implied perfection
-viewers/patrons/art lovers: artists are humans with weaknesses too :) If you look at the painting and love it, can appreciate the message it brings to you, well then, mission accomplished.
Thanks for stopping by.
Later, Karen
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