It’s my lunch hour. The sun is out. I’m at a comfortable local coffee shop, where I was expecting to meet a friend for lunch. (Turns out this friend was unable to make our meeting. Usually this would annoy me, but I might have needed some quiet time to myself after all. A man rode past, on his bike, listening to Hawaiian music via a Bluetooth speaker attached to his handlebars. It’s a good reminder that life isn’t always so hard.)
Yesterday, I attended a Noah Kahan album preview/listening party at my local record shop. This shop is owned by someone I want to call a friend. I am meeting that person at this coffee shop, this time, tomorrow.
I shouldn’t be nervous for that meeting, but I am.
As much as I love talking about art, talking about my art is incredibly difficult for me. I’ve always been afraid that the way I talk about my practice is fundamentally disconnected from my practice, itself. Tomorrow will be an interesting test of that.
I am pretty well married to my current concept: using egg tempera to paint kitschy flowers on old, chipped diner plates as a way to challenge/question how ideas around femininity change with age. I’m calling it, “Damaged Good.” The idea seems solid enough. And, I trust my ability to turn out a relatively successful body of work… I just cannot settle on what I want the final outcome to actually look like.
When I started this series, I wanted to play it safe. Realism is a crowd-pleaser. I know that. I am capable of that. But, I don’t think that egg tempera applied to Corell will work up like I wanted it to. The colors reconstitute too easily, and they don’t layer very well. I could change this if I just changed the paint. Acrylic would solve most, if not all, of these issues… but…
I think using egg yolks to paint on old Waffle House plates is funny. I think it adds something, even though I’m not sure what it adds exactly. Plus turning to acrylic paint just because it’s “easier” to work with feels a little cheap…
So, the way I see it is this: Either (1) I need to restart so that I can produce a “more consumable” product that leans toward traditional realism, or (2) I need to restart and fundamentally change my paint application. Fundamentally, it is a choice between kitsch and concept.
My instinct is to commit to the bit.
We will just have to wait to see what my friend has to say about it all…
For now, I’ll just enjoy the sun.
Happy Earth Day!
EARTH-GIRL 