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A year after first noticing an unusual interaction between two mediums I use, I finally cleared the space to test them together intentionally. By clear I mean both time and space, and yeah, some head space too. 

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I’ve been running mental simulations on the possible interactions for a year. I know both mediums’ typical behavior to guess how it’d work out if I threw them together under varying conditions, with varying controls or lack thereof. But I was’t sure. 

And, to be honest, I was a little reluctant to test it because I didn’t want my hopes of it working crushed. (Even if I was 95% sure it’d work, I was procrastinating; that 5% has bitten me in the ass before.) So I hem-hawed and dragged my feet, and worked on everything else but painting, despite having completed the work for (and the openings of) the last shows I planned on doing this year, and being caught up on jewelry, and even having gotten yard work done. I even faffed about on Facebook, and worked on a new business in the early stages. 

I did basically everything but paint, because… I didn’t want to be disappointed if it didn’t work. I’ve had so many “I’ve done it all right, this should be easy” things that went spectacularly wrong lately that I was up to my knees in doubt that I’d screw it up and would never come back to what was a phenomenal idea. I know me. I do stupid shit like that. But repeated screw ups do that to your morale. It happens.

However, I had to paint. I promise Patreon supporters I’d aim for one piece a month, and I was behind on that. And I really wanted to try this idea. So, I fired up the wax pots no less than three times this past two weeks, in prep to paint, an never actually got out there. It wasn’t until Tuesday night that I actually got my ass out there and painted. I had my head on straight and was going to be home alone for a good long stretch, so I didn’t have to worry about being interrupted or jolted out of a good flow. I thought it all through, remembered prep work so the final piece would still look good, and I took every step I could think of to prevent all the possible big things from going awry. I even went and set up a light just for the painting table so I didn’t have to paint in low garage light or flickering-dying-fluorescents-that-make-me-stabby-and-eye-twitchy.

And then I tried that new idea I’ve been gnawing on for a year.

And it worked. 

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Disclaimer: Steve has seen the full piece and the photos. His only comment: “These do NOT photograph well at all. You just can’t see any of the depth in the photos.” This piece is much better in person. A 2D camera can’t capture it.

I know, these are still really cool photos, but I’m telling you, this piece is really, really hard to photograph with our current set up; so cool photos or not, I don’t have good shots of it yet. All of these here are shots of the piece at an angle to reduce glare with my cell phone camera.

That said, Cathal Lindsay (a kick ass artist and dear friend of mine) suggested a polarizing filter, and it seems to help with the glare – Steve just tested it. But it does’t knock out the reflection. Which while really cool for in person (it plays well with the intentions in my work, seeing yourself reflected in it), does not help for web galleries or show submissions. Steve has some ideas for tweaks to the lightbox that might get web-worthy photos, at least. Maybe not print, but at least y’all will be able to see the whole piece.

If you’d like to see the full piece first (plus early access to other work, sneak peeks, behind the scenes, and more,) active Patreon supporters get first look: Become a Patron of the Arts for $1 a month.

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