My Largest Painting Ever ~ 400 Hours
In December of 2022 I began filling a 30x30 inch paper with tiny dots. This is the painting that helped me to truly understand the phrase “Labor of Love.”
It was a commission for a lovely lady based in Portland. I had been sending hundreds of outreach emails to business owners asking them to commission me and she was the one who agreed and made this possible. As an artist, and as a person, it’s import to choose yourself and not wait to be chosen.
You can only imagine the hours it took to make the smallest progress.
As I worked on this I took many days and even weeks off to work on other commissions and projects. My client was very patient and kept reassuring me that there was no rush. In 3 years I’ve never had a client rush me. Luckily everyone who appreciates my work enough to pay for a custom piece is very understanding of my process. It can be rushed but that is when mistakes happen.
Every stipple painting I’ve ever done has been meant to view from up close. Each dot deserves a little recognition. They are uniform but, as you can see, each are their own star in a galaxy of thousands.
There are tons of photos and I’d Love to show them all to you.
I’m doing my best to narrow it down to the most crucial pictures.
Sometimes when the line fades between late nights and early mornings, delirium sets in. But these are truly the best hours.
This is the only painting I ever signed twice- out of fear that my name would be entirely lost in the mix if it weren’t repeated.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever told anyone the title. This piece is called ‘Sad Clown.’ That’s just what it looks like to me and that is somewhat how I felt throughout the process, for various reasons. Of course a lot of joy was involved as well. You can’t have one without the other.
You can call it whatever you like.
Okay let’s zoom out!
4 months and 400 hours later…
Of course when it was all said and done I instantly started having dreams of outdoing myself. One day I will unveil something even bigger. I think the largest sheet of cotton paper made is 10x10 feet- which would not even fit in my studio. But when I get my hands on that giant page I already know what it will become. It would just take about 10 years to complete. Stay patient with me.
