Do people really want to know my inspiration of why I painted my painting?
Here are my thoughts.
I do at times share my inspiration on a painting up front. BUT, most of the time I wait for the potential buyer to ask me if they want to know my inspiration.
Then I ask them to think about this….
"Truth Written In Her Diary"
When I am creating a painting, many times the behind the thoughts, inspiration, or feelings are personal and sometimes emotional. There are time, it is just the music I listen to and there is no deep reasoning other than a passionate mood. At times I cry when I complete a painting and that is deeply personal.
At the time the painting is being painted and created into a piece of art, it is mine to own. I own the emotional strokes, the marks and drips. They are a direct result of what I am feeling with the flow of passion from within onto the canvas. It might be from a conversation I had with my dear dad, a memory of my mother, or from what I felt looking at a picture in a magazine. Others peoples art might inspire me to create outside of my boundaries. Colors in nature might evoke a painting start. Listening to the news might upset me and I might paint more drips than normal or a focal point of red!!! Two painting I did several years ago were a direct result of the stock market falling. "Portal Abstraction" (above) is one of them. This sold in an art gallery in the Mosaic District last year.
There was a lot of passion and not really the positive in the marks and the adding of red, then the covering of places. As my emotions over the potential loss of my retirement in one day took a toll in the span of those couple hours I was painting, I created my emotions on canvas. So, did the buy really want to know all this.
Yesterday I was hanging an art show and one of the people passing by said my painting "Truth Written In Her Diary" 24" x 36" reminded him of buildings in Italy on a faraway hill. To him, that had meaning as he connected with the painting. He had not read my title when he connected with the painting.
Why would I take away his vision of what he connected to in my painting with MY inspiration?
See my thoughts are…. When I sign my painting, it leaves MY life and is ready for its new life. It is no longer is about me as the artist, it is more about the connection with the new owner or admirer. The inspiration I had is really no longer MY right. The painting is now the new owners and it belongs to them, THEIR feelings, their story. My paintings need to go out into the world and make other people have emotions, feelings and connections. I of course do not mind sharing my story....
I love my paintings when they are mine to love, but once I sign the painting, each painting has its own story to share with the world. ….. and I want that.