Paintings after the video

Knowing When to Stop: the Painting of No Hat #82 (14 minutes)

After making this video — which did not go as smoothly as it could have — I found the next paintings (3 of them) went much smoother. I didn’t end up taking them to the sink more than once and there was far less re-working and painting over.

Talking, video-ing and recording altered the painting process. So, really, the video represents some of the least smooth work, but I’m very happy with the final painting and I think it makes an interesting document.

Not talking – or using that part of the brain – is one of the things that happens when I paint. I need to get better at doing a demo – painting and talking. I may continue to videos and fine-tune demonstration components for classroom events.

I’m not surprised that “No Hat #83, #84 and #85” (posted below) flowed beautifully as a result of making the video.

 

“No Hat #82” (acrylic on canvas board 11 x 14”) August 27, 2016. $100 USD plus shipping.

Painted after making the video

“No Hat #83” (acrylic on canvas board 11 x 14”) August 29, 2016. $100 USD plus shipping.

“No Hat #84” (acrylic on canvas board 11 x 14”) August 30, 2016. $100 USD plus shipping.

“No Hat #85” (acrylic on canvas board 11 x 14”) August 31, 2016. $100 USD plus shipping.

 

 

Knowing When to Stop

“Knowing When to Stop: the Painting of No Hat #82” (14 minutes)

“No Hat #82” (acrylic on canvas board 11 x 14”) August 27, 2016. $100 USD plus shipping.

The Dark Side of Maria

“Paul” (acrylic on canvas board 11 x 14″) $100 USD plus shipping.

“Maria” (acrylic on paper 11 x 14″). $100 USD plus shipping.

“Eileen” (acrylic on canvas board 11 x 14″) $100 USD plus shipping.

“Mike Dean” (acrylic on paper 11 x 14″). $100 USD plus shipping.

Vol. 389 of Normal History (September 3, 2016) Jean Smith and David Lester’s weekly column in Magnet Magazine

The Dark Side of Maria from Mecca Normal’s album The Observer (Kill Rock Stars, 2006)

Song slivers arrive in shipping and receiving, between photo-cutter roar and dry-mounting rumble. With my mind, I add the sounds together and turn the nearly inaudible radio into Marvin Gaye. Regardless of what’s playing I hear Sexual Healing. Sexual, sexual healing.
Paul comes to look out the window. Wincing at the brightness, he fingers the paper white orchid. I turn away. He asks me, “What’s your favorite movie?”
“Harold and Maude,” I say. “It’s about a suicidal young guy who falls in love with an eccentric old woman.”
“OK. What’s your second favorite movie?”
“Picnic At Hanging Rock,” I say. “Australian school girls lost in the outback.”
Paul lays his head on the postage scale.
“Ten pounds ten ounces,” I say.
On coffee break, Maria talks about her roommate. “He’s white. He’s single. He’s 50, but he’s circumcised. Jean, Jean, Jean, do you prefer cut or uncut?”
In my mind I see the penises of recent dalliances, dicks and cocks of old relationships. Cut, uncut. Cut, uncut. Maria and the others are waiting for my answer, for my preference.
Maria says, “Uncut is ugly.”
Eileen says, “How do you know?”
Maria says, “I’ve seen a photo.”
The dark side of Maria. We are nibbling on Mike Dean’s banana bread. Mike is the Jethro Bodine handyman at the photo lab. He’s been phoning his mother across three time zones to get her recipes. He brings baked goods to work on the bus, triple plastic-wrapped. Pies, cookies, biscuits. He wants a reaction. He wants a reaction from the dark side of Maria.