I pulled out a few older paintings while organizing the workshop today and thought this one deserved another look. Yes, I know it’s not Thursday, July 24th.
So go ahead and have a look while I get my thoughts together.
Someone told me recently that I should be working on my art for me, not to seek recognition. Huh. Does it mean something bad about me that I see no reason to make art that I don’t intend to share? To seek recognition implies, I think, a desire for accolades. I do seek recognition, but literally just that — to be recognized. I see no reason to tell this story to myself, as I already know it. I want to tell it to you.
This year, a data loss left me with only a handful (here below, one of that handful) of the images of planets I’ve collected playing No Man’s Sky. Hundreds of beautiful coincidences of color and form and light. Crushing, though I do feel a little bit silly, being so crushed.
But they weren’t just random screenshots, they were an extension of my photography, something I poured a lot of creative energy into, and more, they were the references I paint from, so they represent this huge lost potential — now they’re all paintings that will never exist.
If you tuned in last time you already know that I’ve been making some upgrades to my travel paint kit after discovering Art Toolkit, which has apparently been there all along while I did years of fruitless searching. I was really excited to finally find something that could fit my full range of tube paints and take up almost no room in my bag.
After I filled the pans and let them dry down overnight I found that a few colors needed another layer, so today I thought I’d boot up No Man’s Sky and do some painting while I finish my new palette.