The Demon Cat

I finished a new painting! Sold it, too, which was an exciting first. I'm very pleased with how Data turned out. I'm especially happy about the experience of painting Spot. I haven't tried to paint an animal in some time, and it was fun to attack his face with no clue as to where to start. By the end, I felt like I had lost control. All I know is, I didn't intend for him to look like the demon's spawn, and he kind of does! I don't know how that spirit got in there, but I love it! It made me want to stretch my boundaries more, at the same time as the whole experience made me want to paint more portraits. I'm comfortable with that format, I feel fairly competent, and I enjoy all the baggage that comes along with a portrait - the question of, who is this person, really? Why were they chosen to be immortalized? The idea that a portrait will live on long after its subject is gone, a record forever, fascinates me.

I've also become re-interested in an idea I had a while ago, of painting dialogue from movies I love. I really like this idea because in the most blatant sense, it's one of the things I'm trying to convey with a lot of my paintings - that what can be seen to many as junk can also be viewed as art. And then again - is a canvas with words painted on it art? Oh, so many Benningtony levels of MEANING! I also like the possible relationship to illuminated manuscripts. Hence, I have spent the last two and a half hours watching scenes from movies I love, pausing every few seconds to transcribe the dialogue. (I don't trust IMDb's memorable quotes section OR what screenplays I can find online; I want the genuine article, right out of the actors' mouths!) As a result I have sixteen pages of my little notebook filled and a painful blister on my ring finger from the pen. Oh, the lost art of handwriting! I read an article a few days ago that suggested that cursive may be vanishing from this earth. As an honorable Montessorian, I shuddered - I learned cursive before print, from those wonderful sandpaper letters. ANYWAY, I've now got scenes from Point Break, Damien: Omen II, Black Narcissus, and A Matter of Life and Death a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven. An even split between schlock and brilliance. One thing I'm always amazed by is how many words are in even the shortest of conversations. It makes me want to be even more taciturn.