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A Thousand Tiny Failures

5/6/2020

4 Comments

 
"A Thousand Tiny Failures" - acrylic on wood panel (baltic birch, uncradled) 6.5" x 9.5" x .5".  Ready to hang (back has been pre-wired for hanging).  Available here and at Artfinder.

Improvement at anything is based on thousands of tiny failures. 
 - MARK MANSON, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK


Oh, the studio is a rumpus room for the month of May, as Brian and I begin a month long e-course with the always incredible Irish artist  Pauline Agnew.  This course focuses on color, which is perfect during May when there seems to be a riot of color everywhere around us.
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A Thousand Tiny Failures
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color studies

There are piles of color studies in the studio.  Some of them may inspire a painting (like today's piece). The bulk of them will end up in the bin.  But each of them is one of the thousand tiny failures required to produce something wonderful.

This is true in life just as in painting.  We try.  We fail.  We try again and fail again until it seems like we many never succeed at [insert your favorite thing to fail at here].  Then, Manson says, we often become afraid to fail and stick only to what we're already good at.   That's where the DO SOMETHING principle comes in.    Just do something.  Anything.  The smallest thing.  And get the snowball rolling toward being successful at that thing that once seemed impossible.  Ready?  GO!

​About the painting:  this began as one of the course color studies, which became an underpainting for the final piece.  Acrylic paint, palette knife, paint brush, spray bottle and rubber wedge.  The chromatic black is my  new favorite color - a mix of Van Dyke Brown and Prussian Blue.   Of the colors nearest to black in art, Pauline says the goal is "dark, not dead."  Omg.  Right on, I say.
4 Comments
Dotty Seiter link
5/7/2020 12:48:22 pm

This is my kinda party—byo thousands of tiny failures. Better even than toilet paper 'cause there is an unending supply available to each and every one of us.

Your painting is an invitation also. Can't stop looking.

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jen
5/7/2020 12:57:52 pm

ha ha! Dotty - byo thousands of tiny failures...that's all any of us can do, right? And thank you. This little piece felt grand in its tiny space, and gave me the smallest glimpse of how you might feel making your miniature masterpieces. :)

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Carol Edan link
5/7/2020 12:51:00 pm

"Just do something." That IS the key. I try to explain to some of my artist friends but it seems to fall on deaf ears. I go and to play not paint is what I tell myself and I join "cookie" my exuberant inner child to do more BossyPants prompt and let them take me where they want. Love your energetic abstraction and some new colors!

Reply
jen
5/7/2020 12:58:41 pm

Carol! Yes! Kindred spirits, we are! I love that "cookie" is your inner child - adorable!

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  • Home
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  • Exhibits
    • The Downside of Lycanthropy
    • A Song for the Hunted
    • The Wild God
    • NUDGE - SHOVE
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