It's Done!

On April 7th, I overcame my painter's block and started transforming a canvas into this piece of art (left). 105 days later it is complete.

On the one hand, I am slightly ashamed that it took me so long to finish as most artists could have finished this piece in a month, maybe even in a week. However, I am not a professional artist and have many other things that I need to be doing. I have a full-time job, am married, have a great group of friends, and countless other hobbies that keep me busy. Nevertheless, I need to find the discipline to continue painting and minimize the amount of procrastination. And in all of these considerations, the only thing that matters is time.

Time is important in art because we have so limited amount of it. Time is what helps an artist learn and grow. But each thing we choose to do limits what else we could have done. If I spend 105 days painting this piece of art, it means that I could not have painted or drawn anything else. This painting is the sum of the opportunity cost of my time.

This revelation is both obvious and not obvious. I feel that many times our unconscious minds make the decisions for us on how to spend our time without us realizing and weighing all the options. I could have wondered if this is a technically challenging piece or if there may have been a better topic. However, instead browsing art I was inspired and motivated to paint The Crucifixion and the Holy Spirit. So did I spend my time correctly on this painting, is the question to be answered in this post.

1. Preparation - I free handed the drawing instead of tracing. This made the prep faster and less tedious.

2. Technically something new - I combined three different painting techniques onto the same canvas: pouring, painting, and palette knife.

3. Consistent Theme - I was able to experiment with a theme that I enjoy in a new meaningful way. Now I have a library of Jesus paintings, and all artists need to explore a theme to its fullest to appreciate and understand it.

4. Restart Artistry - It is nice to think that this was my first painting in a while for myself, and it is such an impactful one to boot.

Looking back on it, I do think it was time well spent and the opportunity cost is truly worth the value.