ADRIFT - ART, ALCOHOL AND ANGST

Adrift

          Sometimes I get caught up in the meanings of some of my more whimsical paintings, that is, I try to make some sort of sense out of them as I fill the canvases with colours and shapes. Many of the paintings have starry nights and huge moons glowing in the heavens, but this moon is just a sliver, a mere scythe of a moon that is about to shed a tear on someone's face, perhaps a departing soul. To me, it's a melancholy painting filled with peace and tranquility, the stark blackness signifying perhaps death and the gentle purples and pinks reluctantly letting go of fading life. Is it a death's head floating on the clouds, a lonely soul mourned by no one except an equally lonely moon or could it be a person's insight into the Universe, Earth's shadow shutting the door to the heavens? However, whether the paintings have any true meaning or not doesn't really matter because sometimes I'm just blown away by the vibrant colours, shapes and composition. The odd thing I find a little disturbing about my artistic endeavours is that once they are completed, I really don't have much use for them any more and don't really care what happens to them. I've had artistic friends that live and breathe art, it's the most important thing in their lives. However, I'm not sure how important it is to me, I only know you can't set a blank sheet of paper and something to draw or write with in front of me because I'm just like a kid with a crayon, I'm going to fill that piece of paper with some sort of illustrations or words, most likely of a poetic nature. 

          I've always had fun creating some form of art and much of what I produced was under the influence of a certain amount of alcohol or sometimes pot or some other mind altering drug. Often as not, I would count the empty beer bottles strewn about when I finished a painting and would then say it was a 3 beer or 10 beer painting. I remember painting a mural on the side of a building one hot summer. It was around the corner from a liquor store, so every morning when the store opened, I would buy a case of beer, a bag of ice and then throw it all into a waterproof box, now that's what I'm talkin' about, for me it doesn't get much better than than, although I did have to be a little careful strutting about the scaffolding. Unfortunately, because of some physical issues at the moment, I haven't had a drink for over 6 months or so and having my easel surrounded by empty near-beer bottles just doesn't seem the same ...peace, eh - Trip

  My wife and I recently started up an Etsy Store a little while ago and if you'd like to check out our artistic creations just click on the link.