i can't get her to take anything out
i've given up on that
i'm hanging them
so they make each other look better
and
now we're making the bad ones good
at least to the best of my ability
the water lily
the flower was great
but the whole rest of the picture
was these hideous greeny orange lily pads
we've also been working on her artist statement
and she wrote these really awful things
maybe not as cringe worthy as creativity catalyst
[which she stole btw]
but these things that seem so separate from the person i think i know
and
i started asking her about things she wrote in them
either because i wanted to get at something
or because i didn't think they were true
the main "finished" one
[i'm supposed to re-write of course]
is way to aw shucks
and spends more time talking about how she has
enough boxes of old lace to "wrap her house in"
than about painting
but
she mentioned painting on the floor of her dorm room
in college
tell me about that, i say
i painted on the floor of my dorm room
so i wouldn't get the furniture messed up, she said
no no, i argued
the stories you've told me about rice were that it was hard
you were stressed that you wouldn't pass the higher level math classes
so you added the german major so you'd be sure to graduate
under all that stress and time pressure
what made you turn to painting
i thought it'd be fun, she said
that was all i pry out of her
and i did come at it from several angles
ok
you've been a working artist for like forty years
you had at one point three galleries at once
you are one of only two people who was president of the watercolor society twice
and you're writing an artist statement that makes you sound like you were a housewife who just woke up and realized she was a creative person and something about being an old lace conceptual sculptor and i'm confused-- how is this you?
i think artist statements are made-up bullshit that always sound disengenuous
so that's what you wrote? a bullshit disengenuous artist statement?
ok, fine, pull out that other one
[i should maybe mention that the first one was written out in very artistic handwriting, apparently by some mentor-y woman who does some kind of art poetry thing]
this other one was about driving around texas as a child with her parents
and how everything changes but the landscapes
but these don't really seem like texas landscapes, so much
no, she says, they all come out of my head
ok, well, i'm gonna give this one a hard pass too, i say
she doesn't seem to have anything to say
it just all comes with a mysterious unawareness from deep within
i can't tell what motivates or inspires her
but she's told me like fifty seven times about her experience during the quarantine with a dragonfly that came by every day which reminds me of my experiences with mr. sluggo
and that ties in with her deep inner whatever
so i'm trying to work up branding with that theme
it hasn't quite jelled yet
