Art Persona
The look of concentration on her forehead as she stared at the painting was hardly there. Eyes flicking on different aspects of the painting, almost reaching out to touch but holds herself back. She admires it with a raised eyebrow before looking over her shoulder to her observer.
Art persona: You mind not staring at me, it’s kind of unnerving.
Observer: Sorry, but I’m just wondering what you think of the painting. To me it’s just a pretty picture; full of paint to it.
Art persona: Well, yeah but can you see the blend of the brushstrokes against the different colour, how it may have taken the artist hours, what may possessed the artist to actually paint this in the first place, what the painting is all about and…I’ve lost you, haven’t I?
Observer: I still see pretty picture.
Art persona: Okay, um, let’s start with something simple. How about we’ll start with my favourite artist, Franz Marc, he deals with cubism. Follow me.
They walk to another room that is full of cubist animals and bright colours.
Observer: Err, what is this?
Art persona: The cubism of Franz Marc. What his thing was about is basically animals and spirituality.
Observer: Okay if his thing was about animals and spirituality how come they are not in there natural form of colour?
Art persona: Because its cubism and he expressed the animals’ spirituality through colour.
Observer: Would you do something like this? Express spirituality through colour.
Art persona: I like bright colours in my work but no.
Observer: What about cubism?
Art persona: Although I like the style of Franz Marc, I prefer to show my work in natural form.
Observer: Such as?
Art persona: Underwater.
Observer: Last time I check painting underwater does not work.
Art persona: No I mean underwater scenes. Like the scenes you see of the sea on TV, magazines, books, the internet and all sorts of things. When I get a picture of that scene what I like to do is take areas of what would look good from the picture and paint it out on a large canvas. To get up real close to it with a good paint brush for the detail just make it 3-dimensional. I’m very fond of painting coral.
Observer: You must use a lot of blue then.
Art Persona: Not really, it all depends how close the carol is and what depth it is at.
Observer: So you like painting things as real as possible.
Art Persona: I like to paint it so the viewer may feel they are actually underwater and wish to reach and touch the painting but not.
Observer: Is painting all you do?
Art Persona: With painting you have to do a load of sketch work as well. You can’t just paint a picture without an outline. Unless you have a very clear idea what you are going to do.
Observer: So just drawing and painting.
Art Persona: And oil and chalk pastels too, sometimes I do a mix media as well. Actually I do a whole lot of different art media’s and try to incorporate it together if I could. I like experimenting still.
Observer: Do you enjoy it?
Art Persona: Most of the time.
Observer: Most? I thought artists liked it all the time.
Art Persona: There are times when you look at the thing you are trying to create and feel immensely angry that you can’t get it out right so you end up taking a break. It’s sometimes called an artists block.
Observer: Does yours last long?
Art Persona: I just go onto another thing really. Till I have an epiphany and get back on it but no it doesn’t last that long. Not when you have a creative mind at your disposal.
Observer: Would ‘Underwater’ always be your ‘thing’?
Art Persona: Like I said before I like experimenting so probably not, I’m always open minded. Besides there are a lot of things you can do with underwater so I’ll let it be my thing for now.
