Provoking a Reaction is One Way to Get Noticed

Yay! I took the plunge while I was working on dinner this evening. I placed the canvas on the coffee table and stared at it trying to figure out where to start – the upper right hand side made sense, so I got some tubes of paint (white, green, some sort of dark blue and aqua) and just squeezed ‘em directly onto the canvas, then took my putty knife and swept them down and across the blackness. Eureka! A comet’s tail! I worked a little more on dinner and was feeling even braver so I added a sunburst at the top of the comet and various drags of color onto the untouched areas. Cool, I’ve started and I don’t hate it, so that’s good.

A Start to the Project

My daughter has decided on a representational grave yard scene. She’s made a very ghostly foreground with a grave marker and the moon shining overhead. She’s got way more talent than I do handling a brush. Even with specialized cutting in tools, I still managed to get paint smudges on the ceiling when we painted the family room.

As I’ve said before, I’ve always enjoyed art. I’ve also envied anyone with even a modicum of talent to draw or paint something pleasing. The majority of my free hand art projects were at most sub-par and except for my colored protractor water ripples, I threw most of my art projects away.

I think it’s safe to say that the majority of people who seek art are looking for the beautiful. The expectation of most people entering an art gallery is to see loveliness. They want to enjoy the visually appealing. I was at a small local art show a few years back and went to look at the gallery to see was selected for our viewing pleasure. There were the usual flowers in vases and fruit still life paintings in long rows and I thought they were all very nice until I can to the center of one row. There in front of me was a stark black and white photograph of a woman with big, clear tubes duct taped onto her skin. The tubes looked like they were filled with her blood and her hopeless face spoke to me that she knew she was dying, but she was helpless to do anything about it.

That picture immediately provoked a great deal of anger and revulsion in me. Why would the gallery choose to show something so ugly? Who would come up with such a disturbing image? How would a piece of work like that qualify as art? Who would want to look at it?

Now the interesting thing is that I felt my reaction about that picture for a good week after the exhibition; deep revulsion down in the pit of my stomach about the fate of the woman in the picture. I even had a story line about the woman based on what I had seen in the picture – she was one of those girls who always needed a boyfriend and was invariably drawn to guys who would treat her badly, then toss her aside. Years of this treatment had broken her spirit until she found herself with a masochistic man whose great pleasure it was to manipulate and hurt her. In his final act of cruelty, he hooked her up to a bunch of tubing and photographed her while her lifeblood drained out of her body. She stood there as he took her picture unwilling to help herself or to try and stop him from ending her life and throwing her away.

Not one of the pretty flower pictures made me feel as strongly as that one photograph did.

The Good, The Bad & The Distorted

My 10 year old is very excited about doing her own painting project and we’ve already got her canvas covered in black acrylic. I’m not sure what she’s planning on painting on hers, but tonight we’re going to play with paint together and maybe get a little crazy. That would be good since I’m still feeling a sort of performance anxiety about actually applying color to my background.

Well, we’ve just finished and I have to say that I love the results. Follow the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46746332@N04/4289640588/in/photostream/
We were working in one section applying, blending and playing with colors in a very controlled way, then randomly wiping off our brushes in a separate area. I am pleased with how both areas turned out. I was planning on doing areas of bold colors on my painting, ,but if I find I’m not pleased with that look, I can soften the bold colors with my drying brush and add a soft layer of color. The blocks of color below will still show, but the distorting effect of the light over layer will add a layered dimension to the final product.

Speaking of distortion, I decided to get my BJ’s membership today. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a member of a warehouse club and things have changed. They no longer use anything which remotely looks like a camera to capture a person’s likeness. They use a little wand thing now and let me tell you, the little wand thing is not your friend. Most cameras do not depict me in a complimentary way and tend to enhance all of my flaws, but the little wand thing magically slapped on fifty extra pounds and made me look vaguely Samoan (and I’ve never even been to the South Pacific).

I’m looking into corrective legislation to address our current camera distortion / enhancement issues including auto-Photoshop rectification software to address facial flaws including bags, wrinkles, laugh lines and blemishes while adding even skin tone, appropriate lifting of whatever needs lifted and resizing of areas needing augmentation. If this bill passes, the next issue I will handle will be mirrors in public bathrooms which need to be more complimentary to patrons.

100% Inspiration 0% Perspiration

Well, playing with my small cardboard box project was pretty fun and I didn’t find dealing with the paint difficult at all (other than getting it to come out of the tube properly). I knew about double loading the brush (getting 2 different colors on the brush) from stuff I’d seen on public television and conversations I’d had with my mom when she was taking toll painting (I always think troll painting in my head) classes with her friends. Follow the link for cardboard experiment: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46746332@N04/4289632342/

Box Experiment #1

Box Experiment #2

My 10 year old daughter was very interested in what I was up to so I guess tomorrow I’m going to be running over to Michael’s (40%off coupon in hand) to get her a smaller canvas to work on while I try to recreate the wild abandon of a five-year-old on my own canvas. While reading about Marla the other day, I noticed her birth year and she’s 10 right now too. I wonder if she remembers her trips to New York for gallery openings? Regardless of the fallout following the 60 Minutes implosion, the Olmsteads must have some pretty cool memories of their travels when Marla’s work was so sought after.

Anyway, tomorrow I’ll most likely help her get set up and play with paint some more before finally getting down to starting my project. I realize I’m dragging my feet. I keep looking over Marla’s art to see if I can take in all the elements of her work and the different ways she applied paint. That’s the beautiful thing about being a kid – you can be absolutely fearless about everything you create, because when it all comes down to it, the only person you’re creating for is yourself. Adults get caught up in the thinking aspect which can really throw a wrench into what is supposed to be enjoyable. I will try not to do that. I will just let the project unfold on its own and if I hate it, I’ll just start over again. I will be fearless.

I wonder if artists ever suffer from blocks the way writers do? And if they do, I wonder what it’s called? Painter’s block? I suppose everyone gets stuck for inspiration once in a while. I suppose all one can do when faced with a blank canvas is to go out into the world and look for something inspiring. I remember a book my father had when I was a child which illustrated the different levels of hell. I found it to be terribly gruesome, but somehow compelling to examine all the different sorts of tortures and evil creatures depicted in the pages of his book. It is difficult to imagine how one gets up every day to create something so ghastly, but perhaps the weight of his religious convictions stirred him on to save people by literally scaring the hell out of them.

I have a small cut out image from a calendar of “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt displayed on my bookshelf and read that his main subject and inspiration was his lover who he seems to have been obsessed with. I suppose that if she was really into being worshipped, they probably had a very good relationship. I’m sure it was a much more healthy connection than Van Gogh had with his lady friend. Rules to live by: Body parts do not make good presents. Do you suppose he saw the irony in the situation when he painted himself sans ear or was he just being literal? He doesn’t strike me as a fellow with a sense of humor.

Perspective – It’s all in how you look at things

Day 2 – Okay, well it’s been a long time since I’ve messed with acrylic paint from a tube. I’ve had a whole lot of recent experience with canned latex seeing as how the house I live in came covered in wallpaper and I’ve spent a lot of hours peeling off the vinyl layer(s), backing and sizing before mudding and priming. Two coats of satin later, the job was complete. I don’t know what the previous owners thought was so awesome about wall coverings. I’ll never hang wallpaper after what I’ve had to deal with getting it off.

Wow, I digressed there. Anyway, the only time I ever played with what I call artist’s acrylic was back in the 80’s when I thought paint splattered jeans looked really cool and I decided to try to make my own. Long story short, I was not happy with the gloppy results and threw everything away before moving on to something else. I feel like I should reintroduce myself to the medium before taking on my huge canvas (I never do anything small – gotta take on the biggest project I can get my hands on) so I found a cardboard box to paint black and tonight I’m going to just play with colors and blending and texture so that I can face the canvas with a better feel for the paint. I’ll post the pics on yahoo and attach a link to my next posting.

Back to Critics & Experts – Art is one of those subjective topics which is as slippery as legal jargon when it comes to defining just what it is (is that a pile of garbage or is that a sculpture?) Classifying whether it’s worthy of critical acclaim is an on-going argument which has lasted for centuries. Each new generation of artists has had to battle for their style to be accepted as valid. Some died before their work was deemed worthy of recognition.

The fact of the matter is that art is personal. Everybody has their personal taste. You like what you like depending upon your individuality and what you’ve been exposed to in your life. Maybe you’ve got a Velvet Elvis Painting hanging in your living room and you love it. When you come home in the evening after a hard day of work, the blue sheen which accents his dark locks and those full lips contrasting against the dark fabric fill your chest with warmth. That full studded collar framing The King’s emotion-filled face brings to mind how his music liberated and uplifted a whole generation; even changed the world. You lose yourself for a magical moment in his greatness. You love your painting.

Then one day, you decide to have a cookout at your home and invite some folks from work. You buy the food, clean and vacuum and make sure The King is dust free. You are ready for your guests. What you’re not expecting is their reaction to your piece of art. People laugh and joke as they come upon your velvet masterpiece. You are repeatedly ribbed about your choice of decoration. No one shares your appreciation of it. Your painting becomes the lingering water cooler story at your office long after the day of your party.

Now when you come home from work, Elvis gives you no joy. He is just a bitter reminder of the teasing you have been forced to endure. Finally, you go to the local art & framing shop and find something similar to the geometric print in your boss’s office and hang it on your living room wall. Elvis goes into the dumpster. The new print doesn’t make you feel the same way that the velvet one did, but you decide that the new art will be better received the next time you entertain.

You, my friend, have had a change of perspective.

The Background – A Strong Foundation is the Basis for a Successful Project

Day 1 of my Marla painting venture – I noticed when viewing “My Kid Could Paint That” that many of Marla’s paintings were based on a fixed background color, meaning that the first color applied to the painting was spread universally across the canvas before other colors were applied. I also remember from my art appreciation class way back in community college that artists typically would start with a base rather than a blank canvas when beginning a project.

That sounds easy enough, but what color should I start with? I love red, but will all the colors I’m planning to use look good on a red background? When toying with the idea of doing this project one of the images I would think about were the lovely kimonos in “Memoirs of a Geisha” – my favorite being the rich turquoise one with red embroidery, sash and collar. Oh, if I could somehow recreate the feeling that those kimonos inspired in me, it would be heaven, but I don’t think I’m ready for red yet.

Perhaps blue would be a good starting point, but which one? I love indigo and think everything goes with blue jeans, but I don’t want my project to feel as casual as a comfortable pair of jeans make me feel. Sky blue seems sort of juvenile and reminds my of my mom’s robin’s egg blue Volkswagen picture in the family album. Purple is nice. I once was involved in a kids painting project (when I was a kid) to decorate an underpass. I tried to convince the director that the sky should be purple. She disagreed, but went off to supervise some of the other kids so I started my purple sky anyway. When I was discovered, it was decided that my sky would be transformed into a purple dragon, so at least I sort of got my way. So no purple either.

The most forgiving color I can think of is black; after all, it does comprise all of the other colors so I’m sure it would be sympathetic to anything I applied to it. Black it is!  and off I go to take my tiny roller (purchased in the paint department at Home Depot and very reasonably priced) and apply my Basics black acrylic with abandon! 

With regards to the hype associated with Marla’s rise to fame and her subsequent fall after the 60 Minutes segment trashed her credibility (based solely on the opinion of one art “expert”), I’d just like to know why we give so much authority to these so-called experts? Think about it – people truly liked Marla’s work enough to buy it and enough for the demand to drive the prices up to above the average for a New York City gallery painting. I understand that part of the driving force behind the price spike was driven by her prodigy status and investors buying her paintings more for an investment than for any true appreciation of her work, but in the beginning, it was just about the art; it was about color and free form and enthusiasm and one little girl who loved to paint.

Do I think her dad talked to her about how to paint? Sure I do. He likes to dabble in paint and people tend to share their passions with their kids – it’s called parenting. We share what we love with our kids and hope they love it too.

Do I give any credence to the opinion of the Art Authority that 60 Minutes used to assess Marla’s paintings and her estimation of Marla’s ability to have created all of the paintings which bear her name? Not even a little. The cult of Marla followers though; the weight of one dried up old stick’s words on national television about Marla’s work rocked their world and the value they had built around her work came tumbling down.

More on this tomorrow. It’s time to paint.

Art for Art’s Sake – It all started with Marla Olmstead

Well, actually I’ve always loved art – all kinds of art. But it seems I have no natural ability of my own. I don’t paint or decorate or have any hobbies to speak of other than collecting things. I couldn’t draw my way out of a paper bag and it makes me crazy! All I’ve ever wanted to do is do something creative!

And then I happened across the independent film “My Kid Could Paint That” and I found inspiration.  The movie filmed and directed by Amir Bar-Lev documents the rapid rise and fall of young Marla Olmstead’s artistic career and showcases pieces of her work which she created during the years when she was four and five. There was a great deal of controversy surrounding Marla’s work and the fabulous prices her paintings brought. My only thought was that I loved them. I loved  the unbridled bold colors; the scrawls and daubs; the balance amid the chaos.

I went on line to see if Marla paintings were still available and much to my surprise and delight, there is a gallery which still sells her work. Even better, my favorite painting is still for sale, though I am not in a position to buy it. So I started to think “Maybe I can make one myself. Seriously, how hard could it be? She was a four year old and you’re … somewhat older than four. You can do this.” So I find myself six months after watching the movie in possession of a large blank canvas, a variety of acrylic paints (bought painstakingly one at a time at Michael’s using 40% off coupons) and a set of brushes, small rollers and a putty knife.

Now I begin my own creative odyssey. My opponent is the blank canvas and my guide is Marla. I plan to post daily the progress I have made on my project and I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to do this. I’d also like to discuss art in general and my observations and thoughts as a casual observer of the art world. I hope you will follow along with me on this journey and add your own comments and thoughts to what I have written.

Best wishes,

Paula