“Nobody Ever Said It Was Going to be Easy,” 11″ x 14″, oil on canvas

nobody_said

I had this idea today that I could so some self-portraits but with a personal twist – close-up and extremely simplified. I might go down to 2 tones, maybe 3. But that’s it. I’m going to outline the face in a dark color and the background may end up just being some flake white (because I want that pasty texture). I’ll use my normal signature brush to do the writing in a bold color. I might invoke the Sienna underpainting with the limited palette of Sienna, Ultramarine, and Titanium White. Except the writing. It’s taking a bit of limelight, so deal.

Back in high school I used to fill sketchbooks with a sort of “chain of thought” or “spoken word,” if you will. The drawings were fragments that meant something to me and then I would simply write the text along the path of the object. It doesn’t matter if the text fits the drawing. Because it will, no matter what. Either directly or in a Nietzsche Family Circus sort of way.

I refined the process over the years but I’ve never, ever shared them.

Well, here goes nothing.

I’m going to aim for several of these in this style. Let’s say, oh, at least 5.

Last night I watched “It Might Get Loud,” a documentary about Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. Jimmy Page has a lot of screen time (he’s the co-producer) and really spends a lot of time talking about all the questions he had while learning guitar. He practiced and practiced, he experimented and experimented, and also did just regular Joe sorts of things like fill-in studio work.

No, I’m not Jimmy Page. I’m me. And I need to experiment so that my style will reveal itself. Reveal me. Reveal what it is I want to say. Or maybe what I don’t want to say?