Kurt... thx for the reply.. I knew you knew about not liking something you've done but stuck with it. Several years ago I was working on a piece... and one day I had it! I called it a piece a shit. It happens that within an hour or two Soo came into my art space with an old friend of ours. "Did you finish the piece?" Soo asked.
"I did but I fucking hate it!" I replied, somewhat disgruntled.
"Let me see it..." she asked.
"Nah... it's a piece of shit." All this time our friend was standing quietly in the background.
"I'm throwing the damn thing ourt!! I just can't stand how it turned out." I confirmed with Soo.
Her name is Robyn... she said he first words since walking into the space : "I'll take it if you don't want it...?"
"Take it! I don't want it.."
Soo said "Are you sure? I like it..." her voice trailing off...
"Go ahead, Robyn, take it. If you don't I'm going to take it out back and burn it."
"Don't do that.... I'll take it"
Robyn took it home and I didn't see or ask about it for many months. One day Soo had told me that she and Robyn had visited Robyn's daughter while down in Austin. "Autumn has that painting you gave Robyn that time... Do you rmember?" she asked me.
"Yeah.. I do."
"She has it hanging in her hallway. It looks cool."
Several months passed and Soo , Nate and I went on our yearly visit to spend some time with our #1 son, Noah in Austin. While there we went to pay a visit to Autumn. After walking into her apartment I looked around and there it was - at the end of her hallway hanging as Soo had described. I looked a second time. I looked a third time. Damn if it didn't look great to my eyes. I was drawn to it. I took a picture of it and after getting home I had once again looked at this painting and gave it a name, "Autumn Blue."
This is a scan of the photo of the acrylic painting that brought on this story -
I still like this painting. I hadn't done anything like it before or since. But there is something between the brushstrokes that whispers to me. I'm convinced the name is perfect. What is strange, if that is the right word, is, once again, the power of art and how it finds a way to release itself thru an artists mind even if the artist does not want to 'say it.' Wondrous mystery.
[enough]