What is art if not obsession?
Billy Pappas started a drawing of Marilyn Monroe in 1994, wanting to set a new standard for realistic imagery. He worked on the portrait full-time for nearly nine years. There is a documentary about his work called Waiting for Hockney.
Tim Jenison is an inventor who believed that Johannes Vermeer used a camera obscura to paint his paintings. He went on to try to replicate The Music Lesson using this technique. Talk about obsessed - he starts out by going to Buckingham Palace to view the original, then recreates the scene and makes everything in the scene by hand, including a harpsichord - BEFORE he even starts painting. The whole project took years. Check out the film about it - Tim's Vermeer.
Hell, it took Michelangelo 4 years to paint the Sistine Chapel after negotiating to do it how he wanted. He even designed his own scaffolding.
I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea.
Do artists become good because they are obsessed or do they become obsessed because they are good?
A couple of weeks ago I found a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle and because we really don't eat dinner on the dinner table I found a had a place to set it up and work on it. It was a compilation of Norman Rockwell paintings - that's art, right?
Well, I became obsessed with working on this puzzle, it was all I could or wanted to do. Some nights I'd be up until 3 or 4 in the morning, looking for 'just one more piece.'
Billy Pappas started a drawing of Marilyn Monroe in 1994, wanting to set a new standard for realistic imagery. He worked on the portrait full-time for nearly nine years. There is a documentary about his work called Waiting for Hockney.
Tim Jenison is an inventor who believed that Johannes Vermeer used a camera obscura to paint his paintings. He went on to try to replicate The Music Lesson using this technique. Talk about obsessed - he starts out by going to Buckingham Palace to view the original, then recreates the scene and makes everything in the scene by hand, including a harpsichord - BEFORE he even starts painting. The whole project took years. Check out the film about it - Tim's Vermeer.
Hell, it took Michelangelo 4 years to paint the Sistine Chapel after negotiating to do it how he wanted. He even designed his own scaffolding.
I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea.
Do artists become good because they are obsessed or do they become obsessed because they are good?
A couple of weeks ago I found a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle and because we really don't eat dinner on the dinner table I found a had a place to set it up and work on it. It was a compilation of Norman Rockwell paintings - that's art, right?
Well, I became obsessed with working on this puzzle, it was all I could or wanted to do. Some nights I'd be up until 3 or 4 in the morning, looking for 'just one more piece.'
Well, needless to say, I found a whole bunch of 500 piece puzzles (of food, no less!) at the thrift store for $.50 each! I bought them all. And continued on my journey.
 | Doing puzzle after puzzle, I decided that I would stack them and then I can create something artistic with it when I'm done. My husband keeps asking me why I keep doing this or why I am doing this. And the truth is - I just really like doing jigsaw puzzles, but it feels so frivolous to just do them for now reason - so then I become obsessed (again) to turn them into art. So, I decided to document the process (to make it all even more meaningful - cuz you know that's important) and here is my first installment of my puzzle blog. As a friend once said to me - what could you possibly have to say about doing puzzles - you pick out the edge pieces, make the frame and then fill it in? |
We all know that's not true... I have many keen observations and wisdom from my puzzledom (or puzzledumb) that I will be sharing with you... please stay tuned for Obsession - Installment 2...
In the meantime... Are YOU obsessed with something? Tell us about it in the comments below!!
In the meantime... Are YOU obsessed with something? Tell us about it in the comments below!!
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