Today is a 2-post day. Maybe.

Almost done or not. That's not the title. I'm just warning you.

First off, I really shouldn't get in the habit of posting incomplete paintings, but I do occasionally. This one is still going through a metamorphosis, but this is the current state of the painting. It still might change. Or not. It's still uncomfortable to me. It was just so pathetic in its last state that I felt compelled to update it. Ego.

Someone asked me at my recent artist talk whether I let people see incomplete woks in the studio. I said, yes, although it might not be the smartest thing to do. But that ultimately, I had gotten to a point where I didn't care anymore whether someone saw an incomplete work or not. On the other hand, I also stated that I'd hate to be hit by a bus and have a bunch of incomplete works in the studio, because frankly a lot of my works look pretty hopeless at certain stages. I understand this part of my process now. It used to scare the hell out of me. I now look at it like the first part of a death-defying magic act.

My devil-may-care-attitude was fueled by a conversation I had with someone who was repeating a conversation they had had with someone about seeing some experiments in a rock star artist's studio that were failures. And the impression I got from hearing this story repeated to me, was that this particular rock star artist wasn't really rock star artist material since they had failed experiments laying around the studio. And my thought in hearing this, was—more power to the rock star artist with the failed experiments because at least they're interested in pushing things and trying things. And my second thought was FU people who judge incomplete works in the studio. I've highlighted the important parts for clarity. It was a convoluted paragraph.

But still. It's about ego in the end.

Which is why I've posted my completed experiment with representational painting below. And although I'm more satisfied with it as a painting, I still haven't changed my mind about it as a painting.

Not yet titled
oil on canvas
20" x 16"

And with this we shall move along to post #2, which, when I get it posted, will be an open dialogue with Mr. LaRose's post about abstraction, giftedness, and representation and a few other things. Or not. Sometimes I get lazy and can only entertain these ideas briefly.

image: Steven LaRose

image: Steven LaRose