When Things Just Don't Turn Out

Sometimes my artwork just doesn't turn out like I want it to. No matter how hard I try, my fingers simply won't create what I see in my mind. Like someone wasn't paying attention and a memo got lost somewhere, or someone else got sloppy on the translation. I suspect this happens to most artists, but my style of work lends itself most particularly to the phenomenon.

I never have much of a sketch in place before I start. I remember an old artist friend once gasping in shock when she saw I was about to start a final painting. "Not yet!" she yelled. And then she made me sketch some more and only let me start painting when it was ready.

I appreciated her efforts, but since then I've been taught a very important lesson from one of my art school teachers: don't fight yourself. If you have a style of working, go with it. Otherwise, it's a long and losing battle. So, I use my intuition, and go with it. I feel that I "build" my pieces more than anything. I can complete a piece quickly, and achieve a layered and textured look because of this. But it also means I do have many, many failed pieces of artwork. I'm like Frankenstein with his monster. Sometimes I keep these monsters to be used as surface for future experiments. Mostly, I just bemoan them. I had a couple of these monsters lately. Here they are.