Three Ladies, Two Mediums

Been hard at work with various projects. I have continued to delve into the pastel medium. Slowly, I am making the original set i bought disappear, then I will try another brand.

There has been a big scandal recently about a well known author whose latest book was a thinly veiled character assassination of a famous actress. To her surprise, she has had very few defenders. An initial defense that she offered up was along the lines of the book not merely being a take down as to write a book requires time sacrificed from other things and effort. Why would someone put their life on hold merely to inflict pain or criticize?

With literature, there can occur slaps, bite-backs etc but if the point of the work is not entirely to harm, then these aspects are tempered by everything else going on within the book. For painting and drawing, the medium makes everything more immediate and there can be no interweaving of a negative and other things as to temper it. You can not do a painting which incorporates an insult/criticism with other things.

Unless a political cartoon type of thing, i do not know any visual artist who would use the currency of their time creating a work to serve merely as a weapon to inflict harm.

Social media has become so fantasy based, idealized versions of people smiling from staged settings, that to present someone as they are is now often not seen as a good thing.

This is why I often prefer to portray myself or members of my informal little troop, there is a trust in what I am doing. And the understanding of my philosophy, truth is beauty.

Nat 5×7 watercolor & Paper