| Great
American Sellout
was my second painting after Mario and Luigi
Are Jerks to use watercolors on canvas. You'll notice that
the colors are much stronger in this sophmore effort. There is a
reason for that. For the first painting, I used one of those cheap
kiddy-watercolor paint sets. You know, a long tube with ovals of
dried watercolors; just add water with the brush until the paint
dissolves, and you're ready to go. This time, I went back to the
tube watercolor paints (remember my Watercolors
collection before this one).
The
results, obviously, speak for themselves. When I finished this piece,
I knew I was really onto something. Here's something that can be
visually bold and complex, allow for improvisation, and seriously
stretch art into new territory.
Here's
a great anecdote about this painting. When I exhibited at Chicago's
Skokie Art Fair in summer 2000, I brought this painting (along with
Mario and Yoshi).
There was one old woman who fell in love with it. Turns out she
was a retired art teacher, and she still shared a passion for making
art. She was so enamoured by what she saw, she promised to go immediately
home and learn how to paint like this. That's a great sense of satisfaction.
And,
finally, I did bring the toilet rolls to Skokie and label them after
worthless college degrees. I really should be selling these things.
Who wants to go into business and license these things for me? |
