My gallerist asked for a Reel of me "in the studio, thinking." I sent 40 seconds of nothing.
She wanted the thinking. So I propped the phone on a stack of stretchers and let it run while I stood in front of a 180x140 panel that has been fighting me since March. Forty seconds of me standing, stepping closer, stepping back, touching one edge of the surface with a thumb. No music. No voiceover. You can hear the radiator.
It did worse than anything I have ever posted. 210 views and one comment from a man in Krefeld asking what brand of turpentine I use.
The part that interests me is that this was the most honest thing I have put online. The mixing clips do fine, the knife scraping off a top layer does fine, everything with a satisfying sound does fine. The actual work is mostly standing still and being dissatisfied. That does not translate. I am not sure it should. Naja. I keep thinking the medium is not wrong, it is just that the medium wants a different job than the one I have.
Anyway the panel is still not finished.
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The forty seconds you describe sounds like the only part of the process that cannot be faked, which is probably why it performed the way it did. Standing and stepping back is looking, and looking does not photograph as effort. I paint botanical work, so I know the genre: the timelapse of washes blooming will always beat the hour I spend deciding whether a serration is right. One thing though. The Krefeld man may have been asking a genuine question. Turpentine brand is the sort of thing painters actually care about, and it is the only comment you got. I would not dismiss him quite so quickly.