Lots of back and forth on my phone with text messages to two artists about this painting I just finished. Yes, it's very different from a number of my paintings. The title is "
He came to the mountains bearing flowers." The flying conversation was about whether it mattered or not for the artist to "explain" a work and if the explanation, title, or any other "story" made a difference. I think not. It doesn't matter whether you "get it" or not or if the light bulb goes off after an explanation. The work speaks for itself and whatever the artist was thinking about, trying to say, or conveys doesn't change how you perceive it. It is either painted well or not, it either intrigues or it doesn't and the artist painted it for whatever reason they had. I'm not sure why artists always seem to be "explaining" themselves. Now that I'm 60, I am going to be more selective about my explanations. And yes, I can have a conversation about the work, but it's the work, not the artist at this point. After I'm dead it can be about me.
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