Have you read Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently books? The general gist is the fundamental interconnectedness of events that govern our lives peppered with irony and quite a bit of silly,but profound, humour. I mention it here because it resonates quite loudly with my artistic practice. I am not a religious person but became quite interested in the search for enlightenment and the quest for eternal bliss and started to read some books about Buddha and his life. I became intrigued with the art and specifically the symbolism within the intricate designs used in Buddhist artworks and began a series of paintings.
I have no shame in saying that I intended the work to be sold and worked towards presenting pieces that I thought would look good on the walls of houses of most spiritually minded people. Painting Buddhas is quite therapeutic and I lit candles and played Buddhist chants to set the mood and managed to produce some pleasing works. This golden resting Buddha being one of my favourites.
I suppose you realise that not all paintings by an artist are good. Some (quite a lot really) of my paintings sit around in the studio because I am not happy with them. I place them on the wall whilst drying and they annoy me and taunt me but also serve to remind me to do something different and hopefully better next time.
During this time, we were trying to sell our house and we had viewers most weekends. The viewers were given the tour and one man saw the work in my studio and rolled up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo that was a fair resemblance of one of the works I had rejected. Needless to say he wanted it and I had to fight my inner demons that were telling me it was not a good piece of art and sold it to him.
The moral of this story? Everything has a place in someones life. Everything is useful to someone and there is no such thing as bad art.
