I feel a bit scattered in the studio lately, which is not unusual for me in general, but especially when I am between workshops. Still, I feel it's important to go there and do
something, even if it is just playing around or wrecking a few works in progress. I have been futzing with these "train wrecks" on and off for a while, taking the opportunity to see how much contrast and variety I can get, usually at the expense of any kind of unity or wholeness. The benefit is that they surprise me. I intentionally go into awkward and unknown territory.
Whether any of them become finished pieces or not (and some do!), they
all go through really awkward, even ugly, stages. So I thought I would share a few of those awkward stages with you. I think most paintings (of mine, anyway) go though awkward stages, like adolescents. So these are my thirteen-year-old girls, or fourteen-year-old boys of paintings. They are all 19"x25" on paper:
One thing that works for me about the paintings being "ugly" at this stage, or awkward, is that they compel me to DO something. I am not afraid to "wreck" them, because they are so obviously in need of major renovation. It is freeing.
