"Rainbow"

I've changed themes.  My first series was to think out issues in my work history.  I've moved onto romance.  This is basically a portrait through symbols.  Like the first series, all of the images are specific to me, and I made the painting for my own reasons, but now that it's done I'm curious what other people think of it.  Bro2 walked in my house the other day and burst out laughing at Darth Vader.

It would portray "rainbow" better if all the Trivial Pursuits wedges were in it, but that wasn't the point.  And maybe it would be more rainbow-like if it weren't so black, but obviously wasn't the point either.  It has all the rainbow colors and a prism, so it counts.

All of these paintings have a pretty limited palette.  Two hues each of red, yellow, green, blue, and brown.  One hue each of black, white, orange, and metallic gold.  I could do it with less if I had to, but I don't see a point in making life harder.  The quality of the acrylic paints are both expensive and cheap.  My favorite brush cost $1.  I had to break open a new one for this painting because I wore out a couple on the last series.

I met a friend for lunch and took the painting with me.  I propped it on the wall of our booth and we talked about it and other things.  The waitress came and went quite a few times before she asked why we had Darth Vader.  My friend told her I had painted it.

"Wow!  I can't paint a straight line.  I don't have any talent (imagine much more along these lines...), but this is great!  It's like as good as you can buy at Hobby Lobby!

I give my friend credit.  She didn't burst into laughter until we left the restaurant.  For those of you who don't know about Hobby Lobby, it's a store that sells really cheap arts and crafts stuff and fought against women's access to contraceptives because of the owner's Southern Baptist religious beliefs.  They were also fined $3,000,000 for smuggling religious artifacts from Iraq and Caesarea and ordered to return the items.  I won't shop at this store no matter how cheap their stuff is.

While I bemoan the fact that too many people are like the waitress and don't get the difference between a Chinese printed image on sale for $9.99 and a real painting, I do appreciate the compliment.  I'll probably always remember it (and laugh).

This incident reminds me of another time with another woman whom I had shown a painting.  I asked her how much she thought I should charge for it.  She said $20.  I asked her how much she earned per hour and how many hours did she think I'd put in the painting?  Didn't matter.  "I can buy a real print by a famous artist from the store for $20.  I was giving you a compliment!"

Thanks.  I appreciate compliments, I really do.  I'd like some money too.

But for all that, I haven't been painting these for the money (though I'd sell them if anyone gave me a good enough offer).  They are visual reminders and meditations of lessons I've learned.  I feel lighter every time I finish one.  I'm going to keep making them and looking for the rainbows within.

To give you a sense of the scale of this 16" x 20" painting, that stamp is smaller
than the USPS stamp of Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World"