The Common Denominator

I am working on a big commission. Mongo size. It is 6 ft. tall by 4 ft. wide and encompasses 5 generations of my client's family, over 100 photos.

I have scanned, digitally re-touched, sized, printed and cut out all the photos. As I worked the layout, I had to resize, reprint and cut everything out again because things kept changing. And changing. And changing. This process took weeks.

Then I researched backgrounds, gathering all sorts of related ephemera from various sources such as eBay, flea markets, my own collection. Stuff like maps of hometowns, college campuses. Pertinent sheet music, menus. I then scanned, sized and printed those items, using a mix of originals and copies.

I am working 2 canvasses side by side on tables. One is the background, the other the foreground. They take up a whole lot of studio space as you can see. The cats freely walk under them but I have to walk on top of my furniture to change the stereo, turn the lights on and off, etc. It is nuts.

After I put the background materials down, I moved that canvas to a vertical position so I could prepare for the painting. I put little sticky notes over parts of the composition that I want to be sure and "keep" as in NOT paint over them. I am happy with the background, so pleased I am inspired to do another similar work.

Did I mention I have a deadline? And that it's April 1st? No that's not a joke. Totally do-able. The painting, after all, is the fun part, what I live for.

So why am I paralyzed with fear!?!?!???????????

Probably because this is the most planned of any work I have ever done. With all the photos, it pretty much had to be that way out of necessity. And even though I am capable of being quite the planner girl in other venues, this goes somewhat against my artistic process. I am typically very intuitive. Usually I just start to paint and trust the process.

And I guess that's what I need to do here. Just start to paint already.

And trust the process.