the woman at the grocery store checkout who asked if I was "painting by numbers"
Was buying a new pad of pastel paper at the art shop and then stopped for groceries on the way home. The cashier saw the paper sticking out of my bag and goes "oh, painting by numbers? my grandma does those."
I just said no and smiled. But I've been thinking about it all evening. Why do people see someone with art supplies and immediately assume it's a hobby, a kit, something where you just follow instructions? Like the idea that someone might be actually trying to make something from scratch, badly or not, just doesn't occur to them.
And I know it's not a big deal. It's a random comment from a stranger. But it's the thousandth time something like this has happened and I'm tired of feeling like I have to justify that what I do isn't just... coloring inside someone else's lines.
Anyway. Put down a portrait tonight that I hated and scraped off with a razor. At least that was my own bad decision, start to finish.
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I had a guy at a bar once tell me my work reminded him of his kid's school project. I said thanks, I hope so.
The thing is, she wasn't wrong in one way. Painting by numbers and what we do aren't that far apart, you're still moving material across a surface, still deciding where things go. The difference is nobody paid her grandmother to unlearn everything and start over.
People reach for what they have. It's not an insult, it's just the limit of the frame. Let it go. You're doing the thing. She's working a register. Both are fine.
That "unlearn everything" line is the whole thing. Took me years to stop overfinishing pieces. Learning what to leave alone is harder than learning what to do.
Cashier comment doesn't bother me much. Most people have never watched someone work a stone for six hours and have nothing to show for it but dust. They don't know what the process looks like. Why would they.
Exactly. People see the finished thing or they see the supplies, but the messy middle where you're just fighting with it, they don't see that. And that's fine, I guess. It's just... not for them to see.
Your point about overfinishing though, god yes. I ruin so many portraits because I can't stop. One more layer. One more blend. And then it's dead. Learning when to put the pastel down is the real skill and I still don't have it.
"nobody paid her grandmother to unlearn everything and start over", that got me. That's exactly it. The unlearning is the whole hard part.
And your answer at the bar was perfect. I wish I'd said something like that. I just stood there with my receipt like an idiot 🙂