This piece cracks me up because of the story behind it.  I will tell the story in a bit.  First....  Grand Prize continues my interest in the subtle use of language in art.  There are two sentences painted in very small letters across the bottom of this piece.  They are a comment on our too-driven era of accomplishment at any cost.  They read, "Power and perfection look like consolation prizes to me.  I choose love."  This bright, thoughtful painting is sure to light up the room, wherever you choose to display it.

SO...  I was hunched over with my teeny detail brushes working on this piece when I complained for the umpteenth time to my partner that I was sick and tired of pulling cat hairs out of my paintings.  I was getting crabby.  The hairs and my attempts to remove them cause smears and imperfections and made it hard for me to paint the fine, neat, tidy letters that I like.  As I was gritting my teeth and squinting and trying to paint a perfect "p" on the word "perfection", the irony caught me and I started giggling.  Then I was guffawing.  Mike wanted to know what was so funny and I could barely get the words out to tell him that I was painting a piece about priorities and how loving is more important than being perfect and I was getting crabby and decidedly unloving as I tried to paint it perfectly!  Then, while I was laughing at my own blind spot, I went on to finish the sentence I was painting.  And I burst into a new fit of giggles when I looked down and saw I had forgotten a word!  And there was no room to add it back in.  I had to rub off the all the words and paint over them and start again. 

Grand Prize was created in layers.  First, the board was primed with black acrylic gesso.  Next, I painted a loose, expressionist abstract design filled with greens and blues and yellows.  When that layer was almost dry, I used dental tools to scratch or engrave a small rectangle surrounding a single heart.  I allowed the heart to remain intact while I dug out the surrounding area.  The result is a richly textured, bold, symbolic design.  Then, I painted several layers of pale yellow and warm white and soft peach across the entire surface.  In between layers, I continually retraced the lines of this piece with the dental pick.  I used a soft cloth to rub a light glaze of ochre across the whole piece including the sides.  And I finished by using tiny detail brushes to add high-light and lowlights and the words.

SOLD