I sold a painting last week- my fourth painting to sell in the last three months. I am so happy to have sold a piece, but can't help but feel some melancholy as well. People seem to be most drawn to those paintings that are extremely personal and emotionally charged for me. Those paintings that I make with the pure intention of selling are of no interest to a prospective buyer. So why am I selling? Partly because with a new baby, I can use the money... but more so because it is time to let go of some of these pieces and the feelings attached to them. Like the piece of the little girl who lost her family in the tsunami. I painted her when I thought that I could not have any children. I was childless- and she was motherless... and the painting was the only thing I felt like I could create to fill that void. That was four years ago... and now I have two beautiful children. She was still so hard to say goodbye to- but I know she has a good home.
Pavel Filinov was this eccentric Russian artist who felt that each piece of art he created was alive and that with time, they would change and grow- just like children. That notion has always resonated with me. Maybe they don't change... but my relationship to them does change, which I guess is really what art is all about...
