Sometimes There Are Surprises
My first career was in writing. Trained as a journalist and forced instead to earn my living by working on business publications, I often freelanced for newspapers and magazines, choosing subjects that interested me. Often, I had preconceived notions about the focus of my article only to get to the interview and find that wasnât really the story at all. The story was something else entirely.
âSometimes there are Surprisesâ deals with change in our lives. The change may be as small as the focus of a story in the local newspaper or something much more tragic like death or divorce. The real truth is that there are always surprises in life, and sometimes the biggest one is how to respond to change.
I hope thatâs true because this painting completed in 2014 (or so I thought) was in at least two juried shows and won an award in one of those. It hung in my studio for years and there was always something I liked about itâand something that just wasnât right. About a year ago I began playing with adding more contrast. Unfortunately, I added too much and then needed to take some out. Then I realized I needed better connections between the elements and even more interest within the composition. Can you tell where this is leading?
The surprise for me was that I spent two months off and on adding and subtracting and adding again. This meant a little sanding, more paint, a little more collage, more paint again, and finally cold wax.
âSometimes there are Surprisesâ deals with change in our lives. The change may be as small as the focus of a story in the local newspaper or something much more tragic like death or divorce. The real truth is that there are always surprises in life, and sometimes the biggest one is how to respond to change.
I hope thatâs true because this painting completed in 2014 (or so I thought) was in at least two juried shows and won an award in one of those. It hung in my studio for years and there was always something I liked about itâand something that just wasnât right. About a year ago I began playing with adding more contrast. Unfortunately, I added too much and then needed to take some out. Then I realized I needed better connections between the elements and even more interest within the composition. Can you tell where this is leading?
The surprise for me was that I spent two months off and on adding and subtracting and adding again. This meant a little sanding, more paint, a little more collage, more paint again, and finally cold wax.