Aretha - In Progress Commission

One final color study

One final study of the Richmond Farmer's Market at night before starting the actual painting. I've been over there with a friend quite a lot lately and this alley really stood out to me.

Night Alley Study Cont'd

This is the completed study of the night alley in Richmond, right near the Farmer's Market. I went out there to take a pic of it at night and then another time during the day. Then, I had a model stand in front of the building during the daytime and took a pic. I got the idea from Magritte, where there's clearly a clash of day and night - the nighttime alley with a daytime sky. I'm not sure if I'll leave the model in just yet. This was a challenge in and of itself because I'm used to painting a scene realistic, and here, it just doesn't make sense.

Just some random thoughts

One of the biggest issues I have with social media is also one of the things I love about it. As an artist and writer who is trying to make a name for myself, I have to be completely transparent, especially when it comes to social media. It requires you to put yourself out there and in doing so, you open yourself to scrutiny, overbearing followers, and of course, admirers and buyers. The last two are what you want, but unfortunately, you have to take the first two as well.
It's often been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. That being said, 'likes' on Facebook and Instagram also speak a thousand words. When the same person continually likes and follows your work, the public make the assumption that either a. the person is a huge fan, or b. maybe they have a "thing" going on. People who suffer from low self esteem tend to latch on to the latter, that the artist, author, actor, must have a "thing" going on with the person liking their pics. They form an idea about that 'like' button and the poster is now guilty of those ideas.
The worst part of it all, is that the ones who form these ideas have the luxury of keeping their own life (and shall we add, dirt) private, all the while making assumptions about the poster.
The reason I write this blog is because of a comment that was made from someone just based off of 'likes' on my art. I have a few people who follow me regularly, and I guess that means I have some kind of relationship with them. A friend once told me that the guy who created the 'like' button, Justin Rosenstein, regrets ever creating it. He said that people validate themselves off of a like. Think about it, people actually pay for likes on Instagram. That's like paying people to give you an applause after doing a show. Who does that? Either people like my shit or they don't.
That being said, if people feel validated based off of likes, I can't imagine how many relationships are destroyed because a woman saw her boyfriend getting a lot of likes from a woman, and assumed he and she were involved.
It's disgusting. It really is.

Night Alley Study Cont'd

More of the Night Alley study near the Richmond Farmer's Market. I had this idea of doing a daytime sky with a nighttime image of the alley and see which one looks better - one that is empty, and the other with a person standing in the middle of the alley with daylight shining on them. I have no idea if it'll work, but I'm doing two mockups side by side. Yes, I know the lettering on the building is of different sizes, but I'm going more for the look of the image - one with a person or on without. I'll post the final image when I get finished doing the studies.

Night Alley Study

The beginning studies of a night alley in Richmond near the Farmer's Market. I had this idea of a Magritte-style painting, where it's clearly at night, but a daytime skyline. In one image, I'll just have the alley, and in the next image, I'll do the same painting, but with a woman standing alone. I just want to see what kind of effect the night/day looks in the painting.

Tobacco Row Lofts

Completed painting of Tobacco Row in Richmond, VA. The painting is on display at MCV until September 2. When I started the painting, Connecticut, the sculpture of an American Indian, was at the top right near the Lucky Strike Factory. He's since been taken down.