"The Deep" - Oils, acrylic, colored pencil on paper. 5" x 7" .
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Your barn door is open. Yeah. A couple of weeks ago I thought I had closed my art blog to viewers, yet when I went to 'clean' it up and add more work, I discovered that it had remained open all along, the only thing I had closed was comments. (No wonder my stats have crashed, I've scared people away!) The little piece shown above is part of my daily exercise, stuff I do when I'm not working on a major piece - fun things to sell on the cheap.
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I have always done stupid, thoughtless things that embarrass me... the embarrassment usually doesn't last of course, and I eventually see the humor in it, and benefit (I hope) from the lesson learned.
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Did anyone watch The Office this past Thursday? Michael quit you know. I swear the writers for that show know me - because the way Michael quit is very close to how and why I quit my last job. I know! So if you're asking yourself, "Is Terry nuts?!" I will answer, "Lil bit." And if Michael starts blogging all thee bad things about Dunder-Mifflin then I will know for certain someone is basing his character on me. Like Michael, I don't like to be managed, nor do I like to do painting commissions.
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My most recent embarrassment occurred as I proceeded to answer an email wanting to know the meaning of one of my paintings. The sender's name was the same as two other commenter's. I assumed it was one of the others asking the question and unwittingly replied to the wrong person. Normally I would double check to make sure I was responding to the correct person, but since I had just received a couple emails from all three, I was sure I knew to whom I was replying. But no, I did not. I'm sure I embarrassed the other guy just as much as myself - I gave out way too much information. I haven't heard from him since.
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I once did something similar at my old job. I was in the habit of writing out my frustrations with the employer, and especially my boss, as if I were sending an email. I'd save the document and go back a day later to re-read it, eventually I'd edit it to be very PC and professional and positive sounding, and when completely neutralized of any emotion, I'd send it along, requesting a meeting to discuss things. Naturally, my boss would be unaware that I was unhappy about anything. One day, not too many months before I resigned, I wrote a blistering first draft - just to vent, and maybe later to rewrite for a more positive presentation. But instead of hitting 'save' I hit 'send'. I know! Of course I freaked - but then I just had to laugh out loud.
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More than a few times I showed some of my rather 'out there' paintings to people who seemed genuinely interested in my work. I can be rather naive. For instance, I once entered "The Descent" into a Christian Art Festival. OMIGOSH! The curators almost freaked - I felt like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddy Shack. Another time I showed my "Seminary Visitation" to a co-worker. He was at a loss for words - which is funny in itself - however, a while later he asked a little indignantly, "Why would you even show me that?" That was just embarrassing and freaky. I felt as if I did something bad. We laughed about it later.
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I've never claimed my art is good art.
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And as far as being embarrassed? Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed.
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So anyway - the art blog, "Up Your Street" is open. Enter at your own risk. I'm in the process of creating a portfolio of sorts.
I love The Deep!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael, I do too.
ReplyDelete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteTerry, I've just seen your Descent into Hell and totally understand why the curator freaked. LOL However, I wish I could have shown it to my students when we were reading Dante's Inferno. I doubt I have enough of an artistic vocabulary to tell you why I think it's so great, however, so I'll stop now.
I love your art from what I have seen. I like The Study a lot. Still trying to absorb Apostolic Visitation. I have already told you how much I admire The Descent and Joseph's Dream (not sure if that was the actual title).
ReplyDeleteROFL! I get this. I totally get this. I do the same thing at work-well, most of the time. Sometimes I just let it rip w/o censoring myself. Bad Cath, Bad Cath
ReplyDeleteI love all your art!!
ReplyDeleteThanks again everyone. I'm still adding photos to the art blog.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm...very interesting, yes, that would be so cool to have hanging in the house!
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