Building the painting Carrots on Aurora Avenue North

July 13, 2008

This is the fifth painting in the Carrot Chronicles series, and in this painting I would picture myself. This painting will show me displaying my paintings along Aurora Ave with the traffic passing. In 1996 I had done a painting of Aurora Ave called "Aurora Rents". This painting in the Carrot Chronicles series would spiritually reflect the urban scene in "Aurora Rents".

It will include the joke that I have repeated many times to my kids: I'll display my paintings in abandoned gas stations along Aurora Ave. in the manner of black velvet paintings, rugs and flags. I'll be holding a sign that reads "You got dollars, I got paintings, let's deal."

It was easy to visualize myself holding a sign and looking down Aurora Ave, as if i was watching the cars driving past. Behind me would be the two rabbits. They would have taken over my easel, one posing for the other and they would be random paint streaks on the carrot. The dog would be rolling on his back and laughting at the viewer of the painting.

my first sketch:

I posed for my daughter and she took my picture. This would be my portrait as I appeared in the lower right of the painting. One challenge would be to present myself foreshortened so as to appear to be leaning forward, as if I were coming forward from the surface of the painting.

Several architectural problems are immediately apparent. Since I will be looking out of the picture frame, the motif would have to be contained - perhaps a circular motif - so that the viewer's eye would be drawn back into the painting. My looking out of the frame will have to appear as ironical/humorous and not central to the action being portrayed by the painting.

One crucial area would be behind and above my head. There will have to be something that snags the viewer's eye and draws it back into the painting.

July 27, 2008

I've been thinking about the motif all week and have rejected the idea of looking out of the frame. Instead I'll be looking into the frame and the sign that I'm holding will be balanced by the rectangular canvas that the rabbit is painting. The bottom of the painting will be structured like this:

Behind myself and the painting rabbit will be Mr. Maraschino with his arm over the dog and the second rabbit with its arm over the carrot. The background of the painting will be structured like this:

Here is a stretch of the ultimate architecture of this painting. In the foreground there is the horizontal tension between myself on the left and a painting rabbit on the right. We both are associated with rectangular images. In the background the poseurs are slanted from lower left to upper right. Blocking this angle with be a sign "Aurora Rents". In the upper left corner will be the sun, smiling and looking from upper left to lower right on the action.

The ultimate structure is a horizontal line in front and an X in the background.