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Autobiography
Hello Mike and Mari,
Mike, thank you and I completely agree with the shoulder work. Empathy is so nice.
Mari, wait, wait, there's more to the story. When I was in graduate school, I made another one of these paintings. When the time came for critique, the subject disliked my painting to the point of not wanting to look at the thing. So, of course, I gave it to her. It was last known in the possession of her mother, somewhere in Canada. I have often wondered about the painting. That was about three-and-a-half years ago.
More recently I rediscovered the photo image and compulsively decided to try the painting again, curious to see if I'd learned anything in the meantime.
I was awarded an MFA in painting/printmaking from Southern Illinois U. in Carbondale a year ago this week. I have to say that my technical training was almost entirely self-inflicted. There were a few very competent painters there, but at the graduate level one doesn't receive technical training. Rather, one works with abstractions more or less relevant to one's "body of work".
Some things that spring to mind are Chardin's still life paintings, Carel Fabritus (which is to say Rembrandt), the latter's "Jan Six", Balthus, especially the portrait of Derain w/ daughter, surely something of all the old-masters, Morandi, Matisse, Braque, Bonnard, Kokoschka, I accept Gerhard Richter as inevitable and respect him for how he handled it, any peer truly interested in painting, and thats probably enough for now.
Oh, and very nice of you to suggest, I'll have that chocolate one please...
Brian
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