A long, long time ago I was a contractor, which seems like a fuzzy, and fading, other life of mine. I even served time in a plumbing apprenticeship back in my hometown, following my father and brother into the trades. Over the years I became much more than a plumber, building and repairing houses as a business. I was pretty good at it, and spent about 25 years of my life doing this. If there was something I didn't know I could read a book (and even now, google it) and learn how to do it. For the past twelve years I've tried to steer myself more in the direction of art and the business of art. I still approach it pretty much like plumbing. There's a problem to solve, (or something that needs fixing) a way to solve it, and "nothing to it but to do it". I don't spend a lot of time in artistic angst, or struggle with blank canvas blockage. I'm just so happy to be making art, instead of fixing toilets, or lifting heavy things, that if I get stuck, I just move on to the next thing. I'm working on improving my ability to do portraits, of people this time instead of dogs and cats etc... In order to do that I've got a kickstarter project going to draw YOU from your 'selfie' photos. Just like construction I've identified an area where I need work. The best way I know to learn something is to just do it over and over again until I get it right. I've got a portrait on the boards right now that is not exactly what I want it to be. I sure had fun while making it, but it's just not right. So what I have to do is start over tonight. I can hardly wait. But first, I'm revisiting my past life and building a fence with, and for, a friend. It's pretty complicated as we're building lattice from scratch; it would've been easier to just buy the lattice that's available in the building supply store, but she wouldn't have it, and I was willing to make what she wanted, so here we are, banging it out. It's not a bad way to spend some time, and it's always satisfying to have a visualization of something, and then to make it come into reality. Pretty much like art, only with art I get to experiment and play around and start over. With construction there's a right way to do it, and you'd better pay attention to that because mistakes cost time and money.
If you're interested in having a portrait done it's really easy, go to the project HERE and jump in. If you don't want the original you can get a download of my drawing of you for $25.00--You can't get plumbing done for that price anywhere folks! I'll post the two portraits next time on this blog....
No comments:
Post a Comment