ARCHIE, DONE

10X10"
oil on canvas
sold

Finally! The dawning of a bright new day and the perfect opportunity to take Arch out for a walk and snap him in daylight. No more angry red-yellow glow.

In listening to the Jeff Hein DVD while working the other day, a few pearls of wisdom managed to break through to the light of reason that lies buried under years of self-taught nonsense. He never sets a deadline for a commission! Those words managed to grab my subconscious, slap it across the face and open it's beady little eyes. I've been painting myself into a corner with countless promised and missed deadlines. I've been working under graphic design guidelines and in doing so have hampered my creative process and in a very real way, denied my customers my best work!

In the commercial, graphic design world deadlines are crucial. Not so with commissioned paintings Suz, you can stand down. In my particular version of corporate hell, we were made to suffer all manner of verbal lashings and abuse if we didn't meet our deadlines. Once, I actually met the dreaded appointed time-frame, stood outside my director's office for his review, was told to come back later and was then written up because I missed the deadline. See! I'm beginning to sweat, even now, five years down the road. There, there, dear—it's over now. The light has come.

Digressing again. To sit down and work without the pressure of a deadline changes everything, as long as I sit down to work that is. Mr. Hein also stated— if one wants to be a professional one should behave like one. Set up a work schedule, adhere to it and what gets done, gets done. Point is, one is always working. In this way, the cold dark fear of failure to meet deadlines disappears in the bright sunlight of reason and self-support. Nice.