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Where am I going with my painting?

David Zimmerman

Blog #4 of 7

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August 2nd, 2014 - 07:17 PM

Where am I going with my painting?

I have spent many years painting, and often wonder who is leading whom...am I following my art or is my art following my whims?

In this day of limited resources we (professional artists) find the paintings we create are more market driven then ever. If the public isn't buying what will we do with our work? How can we afford to replenish the scarce resources we have? Where can we possibly store another 30-40 new pieces for a show that flopped? So by some conscious method we arrive at what WE think will sell and pursue this. Whether it is rainbows and unicorns or power trucks (or in my case cows) the handle gets cranked and out come the pieces. Sometimes the choice is naive and sometimes very sophisticated, and sometimes the decision is not the message so much as how it is conveyed. Will we paint like someone else (Look at our heroes-Monet,or Kinkade or Gene Davis or Sven Birger) ? Are we determined to offer the color driven image or the photographic one? I have truly tried all I could in my career. Some of it is eagerly fashioned with borrowed chops, some of it is the result of soul searching or even the idea of breaking new ground. I look at my work and see deficiencies in color, or application,or procedures hoping to find a different finished work. I have an inkling that it is the PROCESS that is important to the artist, much more than the finished effect. We are all a work in progress, with refinement as our tool of choice.

One of the truly mysterious characteristics of the buying public is the idea that bigger has to cost more, and of course, smaller must cost less. Regardless of time spent on a work, or the very nature of a one-of-a-kind valued piece, we are forced to either follow the dictates of the market, or put a big,fat NFS on something. I know that my recent creations have become very market driven, to the point that I will create for the PRICE POINT (size=cost) and end up with little paintings that somehow consume as much time as the bigger ones (and sometimes even more!) In working very small we are constrained to do what our bodies will allow us, and small mistakes are so much harder to overcome. We all need to make some money, whether it is from our art or somewhere else. But we also need to have the ability to accept the shortcomings with the successes. I usually love each piece for about a day, and then retreat to dissatisfaction. Some do stand the tests of time and are acceptable, but I have learned to be content with the journey and not the destination. If I am not setting the world on fire with my work, at least I am trying my very best every time, and if I don't have a clue how each piece will look when I finally surrender, I remember we don't go to the movies 'cause we know how it will turn out at the end.

I am gratified and flattered that so many people view my work and give me the thumbs up. When I compare it to the greats and I feel less than (ALWAYS!!!) I have to remember it is not an absolute. Art is personal to both the creator and the spectator, and what we feel ashamed of somone else could be proud of it. It is always the message between two people, regardless of the size of the audience.

Saturday,August 2,2014

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