December 14, 2008

In The Name Of...


2007 - Threefold - 60x20

As I plow through years of accumulated data and images of paintings documented, I become aware of a really big problem... or strength... don't know which. That has been the apparent reckless zeal with which I completely destroy, in the name of improvement, a finished, photo'd, inventoried work of art. Sometimes it doesn't get out of the house without the touch-up brush losing control or... more often, it's back from it's maiden voyage, returned/rejected by a gallery and it's patrons. Obviously, a painting that will NEVER find a home in it's current state. Or so I'm quick to assume.

Included here are two examples that I would now be proud to include in my 'body of work'... but are currently, at best, mere underpaintings. True, in most cases the victims weren't "quite right" and shouldn't have made the cut... and some needed only a slight reajustment... but too many are gone, gone, gone... and I can only hope my next painting is as good as some I sacraficed in the hope of perfecting.


2004 - Cadre - h- 72

3 comments:

Annette Bush said...

Karen
Some of the my favorites now were once in my reject file. I still can't figure out why they didn't sel;, but I just love having them around. I wish there were an empty wall which needs them; I have too many stacks.
A

Anonymous said...

Oh mmy, those three at the bottom are glorious. But I totally get the need to redo, overpaint, undercoat, gesso over...

Karen Jacobs said...

The really weird part is browsing through the really awful, embarrassing efforts that DID sell! Paintings that should never have made the cut. But maybe that's a sign of growth. Or changing tastes... a lot of that happening lately.