Friday, June 19, 2009

Naming Artwork

Yesterday I said I have a story about naming artwork. Well, here it is :).

I think most artists dabble in different media (pencil/charcoal drawing, pen and ink, painting, sculpting, ceramics, etching, mosaics, multi-media, etc.) but we tend to each have our specialty. Mine is charcoal drawing, as you can see by the sketches I've posted on here. I discovered charcoal pencils back in junior high, and they have been my favorite ever since. I am a pretty good 2D painter, great at painting figurines, lousy sculptor--I've tried lots of things, but always end up back in pencil.

But, in high school you are given assignments and can't always choose which medium you want to use for a particular project. At one point, we were studying watercolors. As far as paints go, this is my LEAST favorite. Not that I don't like watercolor paintings--I just hate creating them myself.

So, the teacher assigned us to paint a cityscape of Tampa, and the best ones would be chosen to hang in the Tampa Museum of Art. I picked this night-time scene with the downtown buildings all lit up in flourescent greens, oranges and yellows. If you know anything about watercolors, you know this is probably not the best picture for this medium. I knew that, too, I'm sure on some level, but I picked it anyway.

About half-way through painting this I became completely frustrated. It was coming out all wrong. Too dark, the bright lights were bleeding into the rest. It looked NOTHING like the photo I was trying to paint from. I began just basically flinging the paint onto the paper.

The teacher came over and looked at my picture.

She told me she LOVED it.

It was such a great expression.

Abstract.

I'm sure I looked at her like she was nuts.

I named the painting "Tampa Abstract." And it WAS hung in the Tampa Museum of Art.

(Maybe I should change the title of Finding Angel to Amazing Bestseller.)

No comments: