Skull Beach II

I don't really like this painting. To be honest, I didn't really like it that much when I bought it, but I thought I could improve it. Here's what it looked like at first:


And here's what I did to it:

Unfortunately, it has a weird perspective in that the flowers in the front are huge as compared to the lighthouse and birds. So whatever I put in it had to be huge. If I had added many small skulls, they would have looked like tiny Rhesus Monkey skulls instead of human skulls. I had to go with one big one instead. Also, the flowers are abstract whereas the lighthouse and sunbeams are more realistic. So I don't think this was a great choice for altering. C'est la vie.

However, I LOVE how the frame turned out. I bought a black frame at Hobby Lobby which did not go with the painting, but it's 12"x16" so I had to take what I could get, and sprayed it with this aerosol "granite" paint that I found in my garage. It's so bad it's good. I love how the hideous purple "granite" sets off the hideous purple in the painting. I've got two more cans of it!

Anyway, you live and learn. The next one will be better, I promise.

Time for a Rant

Those of you that know me probably figured this was going to happen eventually. This rant is long overdue.

Let me start by telling you what triggered it. I was watching "Crafters Coast to Coast" on HGTV the other day. It's not that great of a show, but there was nothing else on and sometimes they interview someone that is genuinely interesting. On this episode they interviewed a woman that makes decorative square mirrors. She started off with pine, impressively sawed all the bits and routed out the place to hold the mirror, then nailed it together and glued in the mirror.

The next step was to decorate the mirror frame by decoupaging bits of napkins to it. She pulled our her brush and said, "Now I get to pretend I'm five years old and play with a lot of glue!!"

Beginning of rant:

Why do I have to be five years old to use glue? Does everyone stop gluing when they turn six? Why do people have this stupid hang-up about crafting???

What makes me furious is that this is exactly what most people think. Children are the only humans allowed to glue, paint, draw or create, and any adult activity related to these actions, with the exception of house painting, is a childish waste of time. Crafting is all cotton balls and glitter.

So if that is the case, why is it that any time someone learns that I've made something myself, they first express shock that anyone could actually make something like it, then follow up with sadness that they cannot make things like that themselves? They say they wish they were "artsy" like me (consider that a rant for a different day), while at the same time absolutely refusing to participate in anything like that themselves. Many times in the past I've been handed a pile of markers and a stack of printer paper and told to make birthday signs for employees because "I can't even draw a straight line!" (Another rant...)

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH MAKING THINGS AND BEING CREATIVE?? What should I be doing in my free time -- filling out tax forms? Reading the phone book? WHAT? I make crafts, and sometimes they even earn me some money. Is making money scary? Is it just the fear of failure?

If I could get one message out to these people, it would be this: TRY IT. Make a card. String a necklace. Repaint a picture frame. This shit is not scary, and if it was, five-year-olds would not do it. No one even has to see it; do it in secret and then throw it away. Just TRY IT.

And if I could get one message out to the crafting world, it would be this: DO NOT ENABLE THIS KIND OF THINKING. Stop using statements such as "Raid your kids' art supplies!" that make crafting sound utterly childish. You're not helping.

Life is a tedious parade of responsibilities. Only by working together can we make it less boring. Go glue something.

End of rant. For now.