Whither Shall We Wander?

"Whither Shall We Wander?" - oil on paper, 20.5 x 20.5.  Available here, at Artfinder and at Bluethumb.

If you simply do what everyone else has already done, you will be rewarded with the same mediocre results everyone else has already gotten. The only model for success is to avoid most of the world’s models for success. - MARK MANSON

Here we go a'wandering...but which way shall we go?  Manson gives us a clue - NOT the way everyone else says to go.  NOT the way others go.  NOT the way the books say, the articles advise, the neighbors nudge.  Which means, of course, go the other way.

​It is a massive trust fall to go the other way.  A risk! A dare!  A danger! But there lie the rewards. Things unexpected, something hitherto unseen. 

Whither Shall We Wander?

Whether it is the direction you point the art you are creating, your professional life, your personal life or your feet on the path every day, going the other way from everyone else is not the easiest route.  There may be catcalls, heckling, judging, name-calling, intentional sabotage or tossed tomatoes.  Once you're standing in the place of wonder,  you may no longer even care what the naysayers are up to.  Let's go there.​

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About the art:  This piece was inspired by the AI bot, which very much loves to give this view of characters - from behind, silhouetted, wondering what they're thinking, seeing, feeling.  It grabs me, this view, which leaves me with more questions than answers.

Choosing a color palette inspired by the artist Fritz Scholder and an illustrative style more like Möbius (Jean Geraud) (I am a big fan of mash-ups, in art and in music) and beginning with a light pencil sketch to delineate the horizon line and the figures.  Working from the horizon line outward with a rubber wedge and liquin-thinned oil paint, adding layers until colors begin to pop off of one another.  Making the darks darker, and darker, and darker even while allowing tiny highlights to remain.  As always, resisting the urge to define exactly what is out there on the horizon, allowing the viewer's imagination to complete the painting.

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​Big congratulations to Kyle J and Liz W!  Wonder Mike and Lilly drew your names as winners of the August Reader Giveaway!  Huzzah!  

Email your address to the shipping team at [email protected] to claim your prize!  Thanks for participating - look for a new giveaway at the end of September!