Drugs ARE Really Expensive…

After the question, “Do you have larger paintings?” was posed to me at the little art show recently, and having heard the advice (for a long time!) of my friend Perla that I should paint big paintings, I decided to see if I could reasonably manage larger paintings on a regular basis. I have ONE truly large painting and one pretty large painting. I have the truly large painting because a friend — a painter friend — had gone blind from macular degeneration and he gave it to me. It hung out in my garage for four years intimidating me every time I went out there. Then I saw a painting waiting to happen on my way home from Salida one day and I brought it into the house. I could see painting it was going to be a major challenge because, at the time, I didn’t have an easel. OH well, I had a table and a wall. 🙂

That idea never germinated, though the underpainting did. I got the REAL inspiration for it last year and painted the large canvas with an image FAR different from my original idea. I finished the painting almost exactly a year ago. It’s 4′ x 3′. It was a wonderful experience to paint.

This past year I also experimented with oil primed linen canvas.

Wow.

So yesterday I opened the catalog of Martha Porn (art supply catalog) and looked for 1) large canvases 2) oil primed linen canvases 3) rolls of unprimed canvas (cotton AND linen) and stretchers (this has got to work somehow, right?).

I’m ready to grow flax.

I reached ONE conclusion after a not-exactly-exhaustive search. Now I’m pondering a triptych but I’ve already done the math (in my head) and it’s just as expensive as a big canvas. Still, I found one that might be possible. Bottom line, drugs are really expensive.

Drugs? Huh?

Yeah. A LONG time ago I dreamed that my dad (already long dead) picked me up in a white van and we drove to San Francisco. We had a blast on the road and ended up in LA where we got lost when my dad wanted to see the “old places” he knew from back in the day (1942 WW II, 1957 Family Trip/work). We ended up on Venice Beach. “How do we get back on that goddamned freeway, MAK?” he asked me. I told him to turn onto Venice Blvd and we could get on the 405. I don’t even know if that’s right, but it seems right. ANYway, we did that and just as we were to turn on to the freeway there was an art store right outside the window of the van.

From the awning hung plastic bags of raw pigment shining in the sun. “Stop, Dad!” I called out. The most beautiful of all was a blue pigment.

“Are you sure, MAK? Those are drugs. Once you’re hooked…” He was right and now I’m twitching.

P.S. The featured image is the logo of a government driven anti-drug movement from back in the day. Sadly, it was only moments before D.A.R.E. became “Drugs Are Really Expensive” which, oddly, might have been a REAL deterrent. All the kids I knew made fun of it. Sometimes our leadership is completely tone deaf.

https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/rdp-monday-twitch/