A lot of people have asked me why I would paint such a large painting. What am I going to do with it? Who would buy it? Who has the wall space? All good questions I suppose, but none that I ever consider when I start a painting. I suppose a better question is why do I paint at all? I paint to get images out of my mind. I see the painting before I even start it, and the only way to get rid of it, is to paint it. The idea for this painting has been floating around in my head for a while. It started out at eight feet, but as I thought about it more, it had to be life size, which meant it would be 19 feet long and 6 feet tall. And the painting that faces it would be 12 feet long and 6 feet tall. The problem with canvases that large is that once I stretch them in my studio, the only way they are coming out is if I take the canvas off the stretcher bars and break the stretcher bars down to 8 foot lengths.
Another problem with painting this size is cost… That would be enough to stop any sensible person. Before I started the painting, and after pricing out materials, I spent a couple anxiety filled weeks facing the reality that I WAS going to do this painting. It wasn’t a question of weighing out the pros and cons and making a rational decision. In my mind I already knew I was going to no matter what. The idea was there, and it had to be painted, I was there only to facilitate its creation.
To help rationalize this decision in my mind, and for those around me that gave me the cocked-eye-brow-look, I am entering the painting into a competition in September called ArtPrize. It has a large cash prize and set the minds of those close to me a little more at ease that I am doing this to win some big bucks. The truth is, I would do it even if there was no competition, and the chances of me getting in are extremely small…
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