If Less Is More, When Is Too Much Not Enough?

October 28, 2017
   Artists tend to allow a certain "magical thinking" permeate their process. For example, this is what some people think I look like when I'm painting a picture or doing one of my Daily Whip Outs:

A "Real" Cowboy Artist Pretending to Be at Work

   This is actually a hand-colorized photo of W. Herbert "Buck" Dunton out painting for, what I'm going to call a public relations "staged" scenario for a photographer to enhance the popular conception of what a Western artist, in this case, a Taos Society of Artists, looks like when he paints.

   Honestly, this is what I look like when I paint:

BBB's Daily Break Down

   I don't think I'm alone when I say, "If you'd like to buy one of my paintings, think of that romantic guy in the first photograph." 

   It's all a process, most of it predicated on failure, after failure. But, if thinking about the process adds to the end result, then I think I'm on to something.

"If less is more, when is too much not enough?

—Bob Boze Bell

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