Melancholy Late-Night Roundup
Last night I finished a painting I like a lot. It's called "Long After Midnight" (after the Ray Bradbury story, from which it also incorporates some text) and I'll be putting it up soon. Tonight I'm not having such a good night. Family bullshit and strife. I've had a Klonopin and smoked hash and now I'm drinking a beer (Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale). This time last year, I'd known Grey for two months, he was out of town, and I was probably out doing filthy things at the Phoenix. Now I've slid back into my dull old home-staying ways (and so has Grey; he's asleep in the next room, having gone to bed early after an allergy attack).
I've been very remiss lately in answering e-mails and replying to comments, especially all the useful information about oil paints and the kind words on my artwork. So thank you, collectively, for all that. I've also neglected to answer a few questions, which I'll try to do now.
How long does it take you to do these paintings?
It depends. (Of course.) I like marathon all-night painting sessions -- I seem to have a lot more stamina for it than I ever had for writing -- and sometimes I'll get going and complete a piece in a single night, as with "Long After Midnight." Other pieces sit around unsealed for days or weeks because I feel I might want to add something to them, or they might want something added. They don't take on quite the independent-feeling lives that my characters used to, but they definitely direct me rather than the other way around.
Do you just come up with the ideas and colors on the spot?
Sometimes I get an idea for a particular thing I want to paint, or an urge to do another version of something I've already painted (mermaid, cemetery scene, Slenderman ... ). Sometimes I've just visited the art supply store and have a new color I particularly want to try out. A couple of times I've dreamed of colors and tried to recreate them in paintings. Sometimes I begin a canvas by spraying it with a light coat of flat black that I end up seeing shapes in, and following the shapes (the genesis of "Joseph Merrick" and "Peepshow," among others ). And I love commissions, because it's fun to start with somebody else's idea and run with it.
Do you still love cats and gardening? You don't discuss them here much anymore.
This question gave me a pang, but I wanted to address it, because people must wonder. It's been a hard year full of massive changes. I've loved cats all my life and always will, but I also feel guilty about mine, because the changes in my circumstances have caused changes in theirs too, and none of it's their fault, and they don't understand it. So they're fine, as much as I can make them so, but it's a little hard for me to talk about them at the moment. My garden, I'm afraid, has pretty much gone to hell except for a few container plants. Between other obligations and the need to scratch out a living by any means possible, I just don't have the time or energy to devote to it anymore. I miss getting my fingers in the dirt, but I think painting is ultimately a better creative outlet for me, not to mention that it brings in more of ye olde maddeningly necessary folding green.
Onward. To the last of the hash, I think, and maybe a peek at ontdcreepy's Saturday free-for-all post. To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, I know that not everyone agrees with the practice of turning to drugs for comfort, but it's always worked for me.
I've been very remiss lately in answering e-mails and replying to comments, especially all the useful information about oil paints and the kind words on my artwork. So thank you, collectively, for all that. I've also neglected to answer a few questions, which I'll try to do now.
How long does it take you to do these paintings?
It depends. (Of course.) I like marathon all-night painting sessions -- I seem to have a lot more stamina for it than I ever had for writing -- and sometimes I'll get going and complete a piece in a single night, as with "Long After Midnight." Other pieces sit around unsealed for days or weeks because I feel I might want to add something to them, or they might want something added. They don't take on quite the independent-feeling lives that my characters used to, but they definitely direct me rather than the other way around.
Do you just come up with the ideas and colors on the spot?
Sometimes I get an idea for a particular thing I want to paint, or an urge to do another version of something I've already painted (mermaid, cemetery scene, Slenderman ... ). Sometimes I've just visited the art supply store and have a new color I particularly want to try out. A couple of times I've dreamed of colors and tried to recreate them in paintings. Sometimes I begin a canvas by spraying it with a light coat of flat black that I end up seeing shapes in, and following the shapes (the genesis of "Joseph Merrick" and "Peepshow," among others ). And I love commissions, because it's fun to start with somebody else's idea and run with it.
Do you still love cats and gardening? You don't discuss them here much anymore.
This question gave me a pang, but I wanted to address it, because people must wonder. It's been a hard year full of massive changes. I've loved cats all my life and always will, but I also feel guilty about mine, because the changes in my circumstances have caused changes in theirs too, and none of it's their fault, and they don't understand it. So they're fine, as much as I can make them so, but it's a little hard for me to talk about them at the moment. My garden, I'm afraid, has pretty much gone to hell except for a few container plants. Between other obligations and the need to scratch out a living by any means possible, I just don't have the time or energy to devote to it anymore. I miss getting my fingers in the dirt, but I think painting is ultimately a better creative outlet for me, not to mention that it brings in more of ye olde maddeningly necessary folding green.
Onward. To the last of the hash, I think, and maybe a peek at ontdcreepy's Saturday free-for-all post. To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, I know that not everyone agrees with the practice of turning to drugs for comfort, but it's always worked for me.