artists, sheesh!

Artists have a habit of doing things that those around them do not necessarily agree with. At least around this homestead. Last year at this time Ron unearthed all the stored canvasses in his studio and decided to cull. Twenty-five pieces were assigned to the landfull. I was horrified - especially as he handed me a box cutter and asked me to do the deed. Destroy the canvas, stack up the stretchers. He said he was too busy working on new stuff. I agreed because I thought I'd be able to rescue a couple. But he was vigilant and nothing was saved. I felt like a murderer. A serial murderer.

He stacked the stretchers in the truck and planned to toss them too.

A friend came by. He was new to painting and scooped up all the stretchers. This year his paintings are hanging in the local cultural arts gallery he opened - and one of his sheep theme paintings is in my workroom. Some of the stretchers still have Ron's name scrawled on them, but no one but me seems to be bothered by it. And it's not my business after all.

the rich and famous are crazy too
It reminds me of a story I heard recently about Agnes Martin who painted in Taos for several years until she died. She was already famous when she arrived, and here she developed her very minimalist style. She was one of the Moderns and was known to destroy her paintings when she grew tired of them or moved on to a new phase (not a new concept among creative types). One day, her friend and fellow painter (and competitor) Beatrice Mandelman came in and asked for one of the canvasses being thrown away. According to the story, Agnes assumed that Bea would paint over it and gave it to her. Not so. She painted on the back and had it restretched! So now there are two paintings on that one piece of canvas. It was recently tracked down in a New York gallery and will be on display next March during a special exhibition at the Harwood Gallery. I can't wait to see it. There are lots of stories about Agnes and I may be interviewing a couple of her cohorts for an essay. One of them involves a restaurant owner and a lot of wine. We're already calling it "300 Glasses of Wine with Agnes"!