6.5" X 8", oil on masoniteThere's a huge difference between being outside and working with beautiful plants and throwing the tennis ball around with the dogs and always eating al fresco and building like a shed or what have you- and sitting in your studio in wintertime, looking at yourself in the mirror and you've got it tilted so you can really see up your own nose, which for some reason you don't really realize, as you're painting it, that that's what the painting is becoming about. (which you hadn't intended) What you were thinking, is that it might be nice to clean your gross brushes, sit down with some nice music and warm it up, Chris. It's been awhile, and that familiar feeling is creeping in, and speaking of creep-y, who cares if you do a self-portrait that's kind of creepy to look at? The idea is to loosen it up after not having worked for a while, and like Geoff Barnes was talking about, it's not really talent- it's practice. And not being an idiot.
So anyways, it's good to look up your own nostrils for a couple of hours, and it's good to get your gear all laid out and ready for a nice winter of painting. (And on a little side note- Whenever I write "anyways," as a joke, it becomes harder and harder for me to spot the difference between the joke and the real way, which is like giving yourself brain damage on purpose, in order to be funny. Which reminds me: I was talking to a woman I had just met last week and I tried to use the word "ebullient" in a sentence, and, I don't know, maybe I had never even said that word out loud before; maybe I've only ever read it, but I sounded so ridiculous, and my mispronunciation was so hideous that I think she thought I was drunk, which was humiliating. I should have just used the word "happy.")
So anyways, it's good to look up your own nostrils for a couple of hours, and it's good to get your gear all laid out and ready for a nice winter of painting. (And on a little side note- Whenever I write "anyways," as a joke, it becomes harder and harder for me to spot the difference between the joke and the real way, which is like giving yourself brain damage on purpose, in order to be funny. Which reminds me: I was talking to a woman I had just met last week and I tried to use the word "ebullient" in a sentence, and, I don't know, maybe I had never even said that word out loud before; maybe I've only ever read it, but I sounded so ridiculous, and my mispronunciation was so hideous that I think she thought I was drunk, which was humiliating. I should have just used the word "happy.")
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteI hear you... as i too like to look up my own nose... however, i usually do it as a result of taking pictures of myself... i don't know why.. but they always end up with the "up the nose" shot... anyway, nice rambling....
kp
The creeepiest thing about your painting is that you see yourself looking like Nosferatu and the title is borrowed from a song by a pop-star who looks similar (or maybe that was the point). Anyways, I agree that there is something to the feeling of spending time doing the thing you like best. Also, is "kp" your mom? Cause she would be the only one I know that would be really worried about you calling yourself a loser.
ReplyDeleteLuke
yo man, just calling to say hey. I, uh, checked out your blog and stuff, nice. i like the landscapy one- roads, bridges all that, you know. like that overpass at the top of the 30th st. hill in yougine, always see that one when i think of overpasses, but, whatever. anyway, got a coffee date with girl tomorrow who i haven't met so i told her the color shirt I'd be wearing and nothing else figured it would make for some potentially funny/awkward moments. My Mom suggested that i go there in a different color shirt over the actual stated color shirt, just to, like, check the scenario. which, seems a little hard coming from Mom, but, well, you know. anyway. call me back. dick.
ReplyDeleteG
ReplyDeleteGood luck with coffee date with girl. What is the color of shirt you told her you'd wear? I think it would be funny if you told her you'd be wearing a blue shirt and to wear a green one instead and be adamant that it's a blue shirt and slowly come to the realization in front of her that, holy crap, it is blue, and you must be colorblind. And then get a bunch of phone numbers and the coffee bill wrong and slowly come to the realization that you're dyslexic, too. And then mention that your credit is all messed up. You'd really be "someone to take care of."
D
I think that you should wear several layers of shirts with every other one being blue and every time she starts to approach you then take a layer off revealing a different color...it may take 12 or 13 layers to really make it funny.
ReplyDeleteLuke