Chapter 2: Painting

Playlist Notes: These songs mainly consist of indie pop tunes with a heavy presence of soft vocals on top of string or piano accompaniment (with some electronic elements at times). Some tracks are completely instrumental and have no poetic verse at all, which helps to envelop me in the artistic aesthetic and creative process.

Elephant’s Breath. Mayonnaise. New Age. Mermaid Net. Bath Salts. Friendship. Potentially Purple. All of these have one thing in common: they’re paint chip names. When I was little, I always wondered who had the job of naming certain shades of paint and how one possibly decided to name a color “Likeable Sand” versus “Practical Beige”.

My childhood interest and experimentation with paint is a crucial part of my experience and associations with the art-form itself. Tuning into that bright, chaotic raw energy continues to be a powerful tool when utilizing my artistry. Similarly to my childhood self, the concept of running with a first impulse and letting creativity take flight without questioning it led to some of my biggest artistic breakthroughs (some of which we’ll see in the following chapters).

However, despite the encouragement of spontaneousness while partaking in the art-form, there were certain limitations. For example, there’s only so much one can paint at a time, requiring the patience to let certain details dry before attempting to layer them. Learning not to “muddy up a canvas” required me to understand that each detail had its own purpose and that I didn’t need to “overdo things”. This lesson carried with me when first attempting to design, understanding when to insert special details or effects and when to let the actors take the main focus.

During the design process, it’s important to remember that there are no mistakes, only “happy accidents”. This video helps me to remember that concept as I work in various mediums.

With certain projects, I quickly learned how your work eventually “chips away”. I experienced this recently when I painted my “senior parking spot” at my high school. Four days of painting in the hot sun slowly got destroyed throughout the school year. While I was initially disappointed when I first saw this occurring, I remembered that my paint wasn’t going to be there forever, which provided some comfort as it slowly started to deteriorate.

My “senior parking spot” in its initial glory (the design was a reference to the artwork for the Falsettos revival)

Learning about the “expiration date” on some types of art from a young age made it easier when a theatrical design was brutally deconstructed within a matter of hours, leaving a ghost where it once filled the stage. Understanding how nothing was truly permanent, and that I should embrace the beauty of the temporary while I could, made the departure from a project easier to bear. These lessons showed me the importance of putting energy in your work to make it look “as perfect as possible” and to enjoy it in the time you have it until it’s eventually gone.

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