"And God Created Woman"

Semi Abstract Commission

This piece was originally a commission. The original owner wanted bright oranges, pinks, and mint green as the primary colors. They wanted the style to be a combination of two different styles, of mine, that they personally picked. I feel like I hit everything just like they wanted.

When I showed them the completed painting they raved about it, but never came and picked it up. I'm not sure if it was because it cost too much or if they didn't like it and couldn’t be honest. Regardless, the painting was the consequence of that interaction.

It came out effortlessly which is when I know it's going to be a spectacular piece. I'm not sure where the idea of placing a conceptualized woman came from. That was random and consequential too.  Again, I rarely do commissions for a variety of reasons. But, when I do it's based off color and style and never subject matter.

This painting taught me that for commissions I take 50% down and charge twice as much. Honestly, I didn't know how these colors were going to work together. It took some time to get the right brightness of orange. Pink took a while as well, but the green took the longest to get just right.

They are flat colors, which I always love. The woman has that painterly feel to her and just completes everything. Unlike most of my paintings this was completed in about two weeks.  So really, I only wasted about 80-100 hours painting this for this person.

Every day that goes by in my life is a day that I question the honor and the integrity of the world around me. What raises the cost of my painting is not demand these days, but it's whether I really want to sell it to you, are you worthy. I do not deal with cheap collectors anymore, I sell Mercedes, not Kias.

I'm trying to create a paradigm shift where instead of the artist sucking up to the gallerist, the collector, or the buyer; instead, the artist is becoming very selective on who they sell to and whether they're a good fit for the painting. Picasso was extremely picky about who he sold to, and he wouldn't show some patrons some paintings and other paintings he would only offer to certain people. Whereas Picasso was a monster, I'm a gentle giant.