Thursday, November 4, 2010

Artists and Gamblers



The sketch and painting here were done two years ago.

Have you ever had a song running through your mind? One you didn’t know where on earth it came from? That’s where I am at with the horrid golden aspen canvas I have been attempting to ‘rework’. For the past day the gambler song is running through my mind….I haven’t heard it recently so don’t know where it came from. You know the one….”you have to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run”.


It must be an omen, a “sign”, a bolt our of the blue - or whatever you might call it…..although I don’t believe in either. Looking at this aspen painting I know it was a gamble from the start…..I just couldn’t get a handle on it. So time to “know when to run”. And believe me I am running from this latest attempt.

I wonder how many artists feel at this moment as I do. “Art” is a gamble! More precisely the creation of this vision in one’s mind on paper, canvas, board or whatever … is in fact a gamble. And perhaps that is what ‘life’ is. With hard work, diligence, faith in one’s self and the courage to try….we may achieve the elusive goal, whatever that may be.

The painting attached here is one I did two years ago … a thought out of nowhere … and it worked. It was so much ‘fun’ to paint this one … it just seemed to flow and I knew it would work. From the moment I attacked the second canvas I have been working away on I had questions….and like the gambler should have ‘known when to run’!

So my current attempt is now a paint over and will never see the light of day again. I will be happy with the one shown here and move on to ‘a new game’.

2 comments:

  1. Ruby, I appreciate this struggle. I have behind my shop my very own scrap pile of failed attempts
    and rusty art. Sometimes I go through it and cut pieces, salvaging this and that for their rebirth into something new. Painting over canvas will always add texture and many a famous painting has been painted over!

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  2. Nice post. Very insightful and reflective of my own feelings. I do the song thing too! I think we associate certain songs with certain feelings or situations, and our brain has them all filed accordingly, to pull them up when we need them. :)Oh! Nice trees too! All of them! I like the wink of sunlight coming through in the first one...

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