“Fag” Changes

"Fag", (Acrylic, distressed paint, glue, torn paper and digital photography), reworked January 29, 2013

Quite often I look at a finished artwork and say to myself, “that isn’t right.”  In such circumstances I usually end up putting the work aside and moving on to something else with the intent of letting my subconscious work on the issue.  Upon revisiting the unsatisfactory work, I know what to do to make it right.  And, on the occasion when I am still not sure, frustrated, I lock the piece away in a closet and forget about it for several weeks, months, even a year.  If at that point I am still in a quandary, I paint over the inadequate piece.

In this particular case the intense cyan line forming a square 3/8” in from the edge of “Fag” really annoyed me (Refer to my blog entry for January 23, 2013 to see the painting in its original state.).  So, after pressing the work along with others beneath a stack of books for a week, I took another look, and removed that bothersome cyan square.  Fortunately the tape made blue with acrylic paint came away with only a few flakes of paint coming away with it.  Had there been more it wouldn’t have mattered since these mixed media works are made with multiple layers of distressed paint.  Next, I added a new square made of cut strips of a cyan glitter photograph I took with my trusty Sony digital camera.  Still not completely satisfied, I added a thin line of gold metallic paint around the 4” square containing the distressed, and digitally manipulated words, “Fag (noun).”  

Finally, I thought, as I beheld the painting.  I am blessed with a feeling of resolution, and I can put "Fag" away until time to float it in its frame.