“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
There is an art project that has been on my mind for about 2 years now. That project is the reason I started painting. It is a mixed media project, or so I think, and I’ve had a couple of thoughts of how to put the project together but none have worked out. Do I make the photos large or small, should I make individual items out of the photos, or should incorporate all the photos into one larger finished product. I started thinking I would paint a background and then draw a large image with the photos over that, I’ve toyed with photo transfer to canvas and that took me in a variety of directions. In the meantime I’ve been trying to learn to paint, fumbling with brushes and types of paint, attempting to mix colors, realizing that what turns up on the canvas is something quite different than what I see in the photo.
After a good number of weeks of this activity, it has occurred to me that I need to find my artistic voice. My interest is not in the reproduction of a photo or actual event but in what those photos represent. It turns out the question is not How do I manipulate paint? but What is it that I have to say? Do I have anything to say?
