Fibermania

Sugar Cube

-

Sugar Cube
Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, 36x36"

Detail

It looks so different depending on the ambient light. I painted it with a halogen spotlight on the canvas, and then when I turned it off at the finish, I was surprised at how the color shifted. In essence both of these views are accurate, depending...

Anyway, I feel fantastic, having gotten this out of my system. I am all about "All Color, All the Time" and this painting experience was all that and more. I got to play with gooey paint and had the fun of making a myriad of tiny compositions. The quiltiness of the composition isn't lost on me. I see echoes of colorwash...something I never did with fabrics. But you know, having spent two whole days on this exercise, was fullfilling in ways that have nothing to do with finishing a project.

As a kid, worrying about what I would become as an adult, the thought of not making it into the painter's Hall of Fame was so daunting that I almost gave up before I got started. In my mind, the next possible alternative to 'greatness' was a second place finish, characterized as mediocrity. I would rather have been a miserable yet noble failure than to be labeled mediocre. I carried around a host of New York Times Art Critics, sitting on my shoulders, denying my work any value or my future any hope.

Who would have even considered a middle ground at that innocent age? The middle ground is where we all live. We don't inhabit the ether of the upper crust of New York society, do we? Leo Castelli and Clement Greenberg are never going to pay attention to my humble attempts at art, but I worried nonetheless. Where are they now and who cares what they think?

As a kid I would never have imagined that I would have my own daily television show (which is what I think this blog is, for heaven's sake. Just how delusional am I?) and that you Dear Reader would be championing me in my efforts, supporting me and the work despite my trampolining from one genre to another and back again. Boing boing boing. Such is the condition of wanting to accomplish a life's worth of work in a month and a half, before I have to get back on the horse and ride out of town.