I found this work challenging; of course, they are all challenging. (Ask any artist and they can list all the challenges they had for an artwork.) For a piece like this, when I'm trying to express the impermanence and often disjointedness of military spouse life, how many times should I disrupt the figures? How many times should I paint over them, through them? How many times should I redraw them, and adjust them? How much should you finish as opposed to leave open, raw, or just undone? And as something a little more abstracted, how much should you refine, tighten, and render "realistic?" And then there's the background, how do you suggest a location and give space in an otherwise abstract environment? How much space do you want? Is the location actually part of the place?
And the best one: How do I know if it's done or not...
All these questions are asked in a work like this. They are not simple questions. There isn't anyone around answering them for me.
It's just myself, my studio, my sketchbook, and the work. I try to tell myself that all the answers are in the studio. Everything that I need is here.
Of course, I joke to myself that sometimes my studio is such a mess I'll never be able to find the answers.
For now, at any rate, Stations are for Coming and Going, is at a state I call "done." It's time to move on.
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