Day17, The Fishers of Men

The Fishers of Men   6x6 Oil on Panel

An abstract Sunday.  This abstract has something in it I see.  What do you see?

I'll edit my post later tonight with the the title I want it to have and I wonder if you will begin to see what I see.  Or - maybe we already see the same thing?  Turns out most people did pick up on the boat image.  After looking at it now I see I over did it.   A lot of people also saw a city or tall buildings in the background.

When I was painting it, I was thinking coastal colors and fog.  It was too pail looking so I added the brown, which to me indicated a boat.  A keel and net was indicted and I was almost done.  The red and yellow to the left some thought was a space man or alien type of figure.  This represents the divine light of Jesus as he is calling John and his brother to him.  He tells them you will no longer fish for food but you will be fishers of men to teach the Word to.

Some people, teachers, gallery owners and critics think an artwork's title is just as important as the artwork itself. I don't necessarily think so.  I can just as easily enjoy a painting entitled "painting 4" as I can one with a lavish title.  I was once at a gallery opening for a pretty well recognized abstract artist.  This artist was leading a group of us around and giving us an explanation of his work.  Afterwords, we were all free to wander, drink our wine, eat our crackers and enjoy the art.  I looked at every painting and thought "Blobs of paint.  All it is is blobs of paint."  As I was analyzing one of the paintings the artist came into the room with me.  He knew I was an artist by how closely I was analyzing his work.  (This is common with Gallery owners too.)
He asked "So, what do you see?"
I answered "Honestly?"
"Yes."
"Blobs of paint is all I see, and I don't particularly like the colors."
He said"  No, no no.  let me show you."
And he proceeded to tell me how he went about painting it, what he thought about, and all the other whats, whens and whys he painted this painting.  It was a true learning experience for me and I think about this conversation every time I paint an abstract.  When he was done explaining he asked again what I thought.
I said, "It's all good if you are hear to explain, it really makes a wonderful story.  But if you do not personally fallow this painting around to explain it to everyone, every time, then it would simply be a blob of paint."  I then asked, "What do you think all the other people in the gallery are thinking about your other painting right now?"
He called me a "little shit" and ran out of the room.

It's not the title that makes a painting, it the painting that makes the painting.  A title can actually change the way someone sees the painting so an artist really needs to be careful and purposeful in their decisions.  As far as abstracts go, there are great abstract artists out there and there are ones who make blobs of paint.  The blobs of paint generally look good over the couch.  To each their own.  This little attempt shows I can try to lead you with the slight details toward what I want you to see.  It doesn't guarantee success though.  This is how I want to work my abstracts because I love to tell a story.  But...the point of an abstract is to be abstract, void of any representation crap.  So in this sense I guess my abstracts will fail.  What do you think?

Have a great Sunday.

Completed January 17th.

Larry