Wednesday, August 3, 2016

- All in the family

Patch #216 J Picasso



Grandson J, who just turned four, created this great portrait of our daughter ...


which Don deemed to be "Picasso-esque," although his mom was more inclined to attribute it to Edvard Munch. To me it was "just amazing," but isn't it interesting how we look for the familiar?

Obviously our grandson's work is totally his own, but Don and I are keenly aware of how our making is influenced by others. For instance, during our visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas last spring, we saw a classic Rothko (pictured about 3/4 of the way through this post  http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/04/take-to-highway-again.html).

When we returned home, we both started looking at more examples of Rothko's work, which in turn strongly influenced  the base painting for Don's latest assemblage (I'm really kicking myself for not getting in-process pictures of how it changed over the course of several days).

Milk paint and burnishing paste were used to color some plain boards, a $5 junk store frame (that took eight hours to sand down), and a rusted tin can lid (found somewhere lost to memory).

And somehow, somewhere along the way, those things combined to create a new story.

Rising ...