Making Paintings I Don’t Want to Make for Money
Nothing New Here Besides Maybe Those Purple Bags 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24"
I have been invited to show paintings in an exhibition with two other painters. The gallery owner specifically asked me for drip paintings, 10 - 12 of them, though I don’t drip paint on purpose anymore. I could have supplied the show with several from 2018 lying around the studio—back when I had a brief stint with squirting paint onto a canvas and filling in the holes with color. But I decided to just make some new ones, to avoid conflict and “keep the boss happy”, since without the boss, there would be less money in the venture (actually, none at all because I would likely be uninvited). So, with faded interest, I have been dripping paint onto canvas and filling in the holes with color. Some people like that sort of thing. Some people like billboard art, Norman Rockwell paintings, and “Double Elvis” by Andy Warhol/Elvis Presley. Some people can like anything they want, but I need more than anything in the world for me to like me; that is my art purpose—a means to that end. Making paintings to order is not me. For money, I’d rather sweep a floor or wash somebody’s dishes than make art to fit someone else’s plan.
So I’ll finish these drip paintings because I’ve agreed to please someone else before myself. I’m a “yes” person and it’s my problem within a problem that I’ll need to solve if I am to be at peace. I use painting as a means to an end, one which nobody I know shares philosophically. I could have been a cook seeking the same, or a teacher, maybe a ditch digger, though I probably wouldn’t have lived this long. I feel this is just another setback—a few steps off the path that will bump into these 10 -12 unloved paintings for the businessman to exhibit. Then I’m sure to bounce back onto the path of life everlasting.
When I reflect that the task which the artist implicitly sets himself is to overthrow existing values, to make of the chaos about him an order which is his own, to sow strife and ferment so that by the emotional release those who are dead may be restored to life, then it is that I run with joy to the great and imperfect ones, their confusion nourishes me, their stuttering is like divine music to my ears.
—Henry Miller
Thankfully I am still an imperfect one, though “great” will be a looong time coming.
Of course when they force you to do something nothing goes well, or you do it to get out of the way, they cut off your inspiration because I imagine that you sit down and start to fly your imagination and a great work comes out, now if you want I accept that painting haaa it's cute and I loved the colors!
Very true nothing like being free of thought and being oneself!
Greetings!
For me the problem has always been the middleman. And that could be any subjective judge of my output—the viewer, gallerist, child with the lollipop, what have you... I don’t receive criticism well probably because it’s like someone saying “Hey mister, this time you don’t appeal to me”.
I’m too attached to my work, therefore I know very well its limitations. It is difficult for me to separate the human being from the art he/she makes.
So when someone calls for me do do something I don’t like to do anymore, I balk.
“We don’t like what you do now, but we like what you did then”. I imagine popular pop musicians suffer the same neurosis. “Play us the old tunes. These new ones are for the birds!”:)
I need to take thought of reward out of painting. But that means a sort of Internet age private revolution. Anonymity. Cut all ties to the judges. Paint and let posterity clean up the mess:)
Thank you so much for your words!
Greetings!
I'm not an artist, but I understand your feelings. In order to create a work, an inspiration must come. And maybe that's what makes a work of art valuable. To reveal without a material purpose. It must be difficult to create something to order. But on the other hand, life.. We need money and if there is an order, the work must be done.
I believe daily objectives and long term goals for all human beings should be making living an art. I’ve come to feel that people who write poems aren’t necessarily poets and people who paint pictures or sculpt clay, aren’t necessarily artists.
I think I’ve quoted Thoreau to you before. Oh well, he always comes to mind when I think of art and artifice:
I am sure that in this case people would be a much happier and more livable world.
The best thing about doing any activity is doing it with passion, and in art it should be an essential requirement.
I agree, though sometimes I push through whether I’m feeling inspired or not. Practice is also very important:) If anything, when feeling dull and lackadaisical, I get my meditation hours in.
Yes, capture in a painting according to personal inspiration, is the genuine work of the painter. Greetings.
Intuitive painting is my only art power, except perhaps the lessor culinary arts. I’ll stick with what I know and leave the acclaim to the makers of beauty.
Greetings to you also!
Your painting is awesome and great. Keep doing the best in you
Thank you, and great advice. Me is all I got to make a painting:)
Wow your painting looking so beautiful. Thanks for sharing us.
Take care
Thank you very much!
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Thank you!
This painting is giving a neat and clean and fine look
To my chagrin:)