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Monday, February 11, 2013

KYFTP Original Painting

Untitled, 4"x4" Acrylic on canvas, acrylic on paper.

Keep Your Fork There's Pie, one of my favorite (and local) bands, recently finished their second album. Yippee! As part of an art contest they supplied the lyrics of three songs for inspiration in creating a piece of art to use on their new album cover.

After not painting one single painting for more than four years, it seemed appropriate for me to enter this contest. Talk about putting pressure on myself. It's kind of like jumping all the way in to an iced over pond. I came up with a concept after reading the lyrics, and then I thought about it for a couple weeks. And then, because I'm a true procrastinator, two days before the piece was due I started painting.

Before I started though, I thought about not bothering to do the painting. At this point it would be a last minute effort, and there wasn't much chance that they would choose my painting anyway. Then I sternly (in my head) told myself that I had made a commitment to participate and I needed to follow through.

It wasn't about winning the contest, it was about putting paint on the canvas. So I did it. I did it and I'm happy that I did it. The final result may not completely represent me as an artist nor is it my best work (I'm rusty after all). But it does represent the inspiration I felt after reading the band's lyrics.

* I wrote this post weeks ago, unsure whether I'd actually share. However, after a lovely conversation with my neighbor yesterday about self doubt and waning self-confidence, I decided to go ahead and publish it even though I had a different post planned for today (about hats). I'd love to be able to tell you that the painting was chosen. Alas I do not live within the plot of a Hollywood love story or a Disney animation. And that's totally fine with me.

8 comments:

  1. I had no idea that you were such a talented artist! This is an amazing piece of art...love the colors! I am so glad you decided to share!

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    1. Thanks - I'm glad I got the paints out again. Even if just for a day.

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  3. I know exactly how you feel! Once I had the munchkin running around the very last thing I had time for was sitting down with some paints. It doesn't matter if it's not your most favourite piece ever, or even your best, what matters is that you sat down and you put brush to canvas and created something.

    Everyone has to get their toes wet ;)

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    1. You are so right. And it felt really good to just be painting. It just reconfirms I need to make space for it in my schedule.

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  4. This is really pretty. For pictures like this of your beautiful original work, you might consider putting a watermark on the photo, so someone else can't "steal" the work.

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    1. That crossed my mind as well. I should get on that sooner than later.

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