So…it’s finished.

After paintings are done I have a weird sense of loss. After working on this for four months, it’s strange to have to think through starting something new. I like the movement of this painting a lot- it was a surprise to me how it looked all together. One thing that I’m not sure I know how I feel about is the lack of one single focus point. I tried hard to keep the figures in a certain range of size. That way, it would look less like a chintzy photo montage and more like a difficult, concurrent dollhouse. I think it worked- I’m not sure it’s as immediately dynamic as some of my smaller, more focused paintings. I definitely sacrificed something by not having one huge painting of Jess and Eric as a central focus.

I was trying to explain to Christina that opportunity cost becomes palpable to me at the end of finishing a painting. While I’m usually pretty happy with what I’ve done, I’m also more than ever aware of all the things I chose not to do. It’s a really valuable, interesting feeling I think, because it often leaves me with a strong sense of where I want to go next.

P. S. I’ll have better pics of this sometime- I know these are kind of ad hoc (especially with the bungee cord). It still needs to get a little cleaned up- notice the brown near Jess in the last picture. When that’s all done, I’ll probably post again.