THE ARTIST TEMPER TANTRUM

Hello dear readers,

Today I'm going to discuss Artist Temper Tantrums and How to Control Them.

So, the afore mentioned ruined painting has now become my testing ground for various art materials, to insure that no more paint debacles occur. I've slapped all kinds of media on that unwanted orphan just to see how they interact with the canvas, as well as with various fixatives and varnishes. (since I'm using light reactive paint, it's important to choose the right varnish, with UVLs, without UVLs, blah,blah,blah...) The result? Nothing seems to be working the way I want. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Enter the Artist Temper Tantrum. It's not like a "fling yourself on the ground, kicking and screaming and crying" kind of tantrum, but it's close. You have the hopeless, "I don't want to do this anymore" feeling. It is accompanied by the, "this painting sucks anyway" feeling, as well as, "I'm not even sure this is the direction I want to go" sensation. Then you think of the other painting ideas swimming around in your noggin, and those start to look mighty dubious as well..what you're left with is an overwhelming sense of defeat. It sucks.

THE SOLUTION
Work on something else. Something manageable, and something you are confident will work. Walk away from the offending eyesore, and create something awesome to give your damaged ego a little boost. A band-aid for your art boo boo, if you will. And that's what I did. I'm not going to reveal what it was, as it's part of a larger multi-media sculpture I'm working on, and for now, it's TOP SECRET. But it turned out better than I could have hoped, and confidence was restored. The painting will be figured out, and I guess when you have to do something over again, it's a great opportunity to improve things that you might not have been satisfied with the first time around. After a good night's sleep, things definitely look better in the morning,too. No more temper tantrums. In the sage-like words of Jedi Master Yoda, "Try not, only do."

What a wise little muppet...