Friday
18 February 2000

When I walked into the living room tonight I was startled to find multiple David Duchovnys staring at me. I had forgotten, or not realized, actually, how many copies of that portrait there were scattered and hung around the room. There are a bunch of water colors laying where they dried, and some "greeting cards", and a couple of larger, more finished inkjet copies taped in an oak frame, and a large pastel that's only a pencil sketch and an underlayer of crimson pastel... Oh, yeah, it's the Valentine picture from the other day. I love the coloring. And the tie. For me, there's somthing about a man in a tie.

Of course, the portrait isn't really mine. It wasn't my eye or my hand that captured the essence-- though I know I could have had the man been sitting for me. But, no, not this time. This time, I just found a photograph and saw some possibilities. So the portraits that I've come up with can only be mine in a small way-- weak reinterpretations at best.

The watercolors look a bit washed out, except for the eyes, which look as if there's a light and depth in them and they're real, glistening, looking directly at one... Interesting.

I can't do anything about the pastel until I get some pastel paper-- though I suppose I could try pencil or charcoal... I thought I had some good pastel paper around here-- I found the velour paper, but-- and I thought I had some 24 inch watercolor bristol, too, but I can't find it.

There was a time, not long ago, when I would've tried needlpoint or cross stitch... that could really work well on this one... No, I can't see myself putting together the color pallet-- is that how you spell it? Maybe if I could have one of those kits made up...

I've got a couple of 3 by 4 foot canvasses, and the acrylic paints are still good-- but where's the easel? And do I have enough-- Do I really want to prepare a canvass--?

Rats. I think I'm getting lazy.

The injet copies-- I ran them on bristol board-- are suitable for framing-- the simple oak frame looks well, and I think I may do that when I get the picture done to my satisfaction and reprinted-- though I will have it enlarged. The matting will have to be a warm cream, and then, perhaps I can find some silk grosgrain, maroon, I think, that picks up the tie... and a bit of matte gold... hmmm...

The greeting cards I'll save for women who have an appreciation of the delightfully provocative.

Provocative. Good art is provocative. That's true. My art teacher said so. He said, "Art must provoke a response." My art provoked a 40 minute criticism from him, as I recall-- I told him he should give me an A. Ah, well. I liked the piece.

It's true that if there is a piece of art that one appreciates, it is because the art provoked a feeling or emotion or-- je ne sais quoi. This portrait I've been messing with, for whatever reason, provokes me...

And not just on a crude and obvious, sexual level, though that's there, too. But there's something more...

We bring to the art that which is in our own minds, our own experience, our own dreams. (And sometimes, like Cyranno's Roxanne, we fool ourselves completely!)

But an artist, a true Artist, paints a portrait that, somehow, even though the artist doesn't know the person he is portraying, conveys to the viewer some truth about the person. The better the artist, the more profound the truth revealed...

This is also true for actors and storytellers who make characters come to life. Even though they can't know the truth, they can, by artistic embellishment of the bare bones they are given-- like a forensic sculptor fleshing out a skull, present us with what seems to us a complete and true portrait.

Ningauble of the Seven Eyes once said, "He who lies artistically treads closer to the truth than ever he knows." Think about that.

I love portraits. I look into a face, into someone's eyes, and though I can't know what that person was thinking, I can certainly imagine...

Someday, if I get my way, they-- the interesting people, famous or not-- are going to be sitting for me in person...

I wonder what I did with that easel...

P-a-l-e-t-t-e. Palette. A selection of colors the artist will use for a given work. (At least I didn't spell it with an "a.")

... and I can't find the canvasses or the easel.

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