Once Upon A Time

   I was living in Cleveland, Ohio. Miserable. Poor boy long ways from home. I had very few art supplies. But I had a mission. Paint every day. I had two seashells from my trip to Florida. One thing I didn't have was a crappy computer like this one. I can barely type on this thing. It's annoying the piss out of me. So, no explanation. I did a watercolor painting of seashells every night. :

Why Are Some Paintings Left Unfinished?

  Well, as always, I can't speak for everyone, but I can speak for myself. Well, write really, but, you know. My studio rehab is uncovering lots of forgotten artwork. I probably do a couple hundred paintings a year, and it's been several years since I've sorted through some of my things. So, you know, the potential is for several hundred paintings to see the light of day after a long rest. I suppose they would find it worthwhile if, say, someone bought them and hung them in a prominent place in their home. Just sayin'. (Feel guilty? I can ease your conscience for cheap. Email me and we'll talk. Well, maybe not talk, but, you know, write back and forth). I came across this one:

It's a watercolor I started several years ago (2009?) and never finished. I can't remember what I was going for here. I really like what I've done so far. I was gonna put something on the other side, but, what? At this point I'll probably crop out the white part and make a watercolor painting of a...boy? A girl? My memory is no help for this. I also found this:

You could make a case that this one is finished, but I think otherwise. What was I gonna do? No idea. I like this one the way it is, so, it's likely done now. But, what masterpiece could it have been? No clue.
   Why are they unfinished? I may have lost motivation. I may have lost reference photos. Life may have gotten in the way. It happens. Sometimes I find unfinished works and get a spark of inspiration and finish them in a grand style. Here are a couple of examples:

 Sometimes a great wave of inspiration washes over me and something great appears in my head. Sometimes the muse just leaves me hanging and the idea is lost.
   I've also had some other unfortunate things happen to me in the past couple of days. I posted two recently completed pieces:

I posted them, to rave reviews, on Facebook. I got inquiries into the sizes and the prices. I can likely make two sales and boost my morale. The problem? I don't know where they are. I just photographed them a few days ago. Two of the others I from the same batch stare at me (likely wondering why no one wants to give them a forever home (feel at least a little guilty?)). No clue as to the rest. Somehow my reorganization is not getting the job done. #ArtistProblems

So, I Realized

  Even though it's Tuesday I went in to work today. As a favor to the boss. I haven't worked a Tuesday in at least three years. Four days to the restaurant business, three days to the art world (well, I do art every day and I market my art a lot, but that's the basic breakdown). I realized today that I get in a certain mindset at each job. It's an odd experience going back to being a waiter after full time art days. It takes me a couple of hours to get back to the waiter mentality. The last day of my week, Sunday, sees me getting back in to being an artist before I've clocked out as a waiter. At least mentally. I've tried to meld both places, and I have become more of an art creator as a server. I really don't want to bring my waiter job to my studio, although Doug the Waiter is a great salesman.
  When I had my soul sucking day job ( before my current job, it was at a nation wide seafood chain, but I won't say which one) it motivated me to create and sell art because I hated it so much. I don't hate my current job. I rather like it. I'm just tired of being a waiter. I've been doing it for almost thirty years (holy crap! that was hard to write). I've gotten to the point where I feel like a switch flips on and off between Art Doug and Waiter Doug. Sometimes I fear that the switch will quit working and Art Doug will be no more. It's kind of a Jeckle and Hyde thing. It's kind of stressful too. I do get inspiration at my job, and I do make contacts, but I dream of a day where I'll be an artist and nothing else. I feel like I could do great things if I only had to create. As far as I've come to this point, I think I could go at least this far again, maybe farther, before I ride across the rainbow bridge.

 My art career has always had to take a backseat to my restaurant career. Except for the Golden Years of 2000-2009. When I did stuff like this:

When art was what I was, not what I did so I could stay sane for another day, or week , or month of slinging food and drinks. When I worked in several media:

  Waiting tables has been good to me. It's supported me, and my family, for a long time. It just doesn't thrill me like it used to. It seems to be cutting in to my creative time. That's not okay.

No Earthly Idea

  So, here I am again. Writing this blog. About what it's like to be an artist. How to talk about art. What goes through my head when I'm inspired. I have no idea what the subject of this one will be. So, let's look at some of my art:

  This is watercolor I call "Flowers II". It was an exercise I did while I was living in Twinsburg, Ohio in 1998. I was trying to build my art chops up again after not taking my art seriously for a long time. It's a simple project. Red. Yellow. Green. Add an ink pen and that's what I used here. Plus a watercolor brush. I had just purchased my first set of Kolinsky sable brushes. The top of the line material for a paint brush. Not the top of the line over all, but my first introduction to high quality materials. I'm a big believer in buying the best you can afford. Especially brushes.
   Here's another:

"With Child". I painted this in my studio in the house I grew up in, in Cape Girardeau, MO. It was in 2005  or so. I had bought some spray pigment and wanted to try it out. I sprayed the watercolor paper and let it dry. It told me that this would be a good image to paint on it. I painted it with black watercolor. I'm pretty happy with it.
   How about this one:

"100 Brush Strokes". It was done as part of an artistic challenge. Paint a whole painting with only 100 brush strokes ( I bet you didn't see that coming ). It was harder than you'd probably think. It was harder than I anticipated. 100 strokes don't get you very far. If not for the restrictions put on this by the challenge it's not much of a painting. With the restrictions in mind, well, it's still not something I am really proud of. But, I think enough of you to show it to you.
  Now, here's the best example I have of the series it's from:

"Acrylic Abstract #5". I also painted this one in Twinsburg. I had a few spare canvases, some latex house paint, and a big back yard. I tried a Jackson Pollock drip painting thing, and, well, it wasn't quite what I expected. It probably works better on big pieces. This on might be 20" x 16", if it's that big. There was so much paint sitting on it when I was done it took three days for it to dry. Three days. Latex and acrylics usually dry in an hour or so, depending on the humidity of the room. Three fricking days I had to leave these out in the back yard. Once this one dried I drew on it with a white paint pen. I looked for the hidden image. I think this one is pretty cool, but more so when you know the back story.
  And, that's what I have for you this week. A few of my lesser known paintings complete with back story. Where else can you find something like this?