An Artist with MS and the De-Evolution of His Work

If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

For the last ten years of my life I have been trying to make up for the fact that, from the start, I had never pursued my career as an Artist. After realizing this error, I painted with a feverish vigor as if I were trying to make up for all the years of sitting at a desk and going to sales meetings. I reach a crescendo a few years back. I was painting hundreds of paintings every year for shows, and selling them so fast that between each show I would have to paint furiously to make sure that I had enough for the next. I had to find a balance between quality and quantity. Eventually, my Multiple Sclerosis took control of that and I had to slow down and focus on quality over quantity, which in my opinion, was not the worst thing to have had happen. The next season of shows, I showed less works at fewer shows, but really felt like I had a better balance. As my MS progressed, the number of shows diminished and so did the number of works that I created. I'm not complaining. I just recently had a chance to step back and look at the progression of my work over time and noticed that, like Benjamin Button, my works seems to move backwards in time.

There was a point where my work was somewhere between impressionism and realism:

These lead to some paintings with some decent brush work...

These paintings were the high point of my ability, not my creativity, and there is a big difference there. With the progression of my MS, getting a brush to hold a line became much more difficult, as did seeing pencil sketches. I switched to a much more fluid drawing style and stylized it to achieve pleasing aesthetics without the worry of perfection. Instead of a pencil, I now use a Sharpie to lay out my work which doesn't leave much room for mistakes. The drawings now became more real to me, there was more attention, actually, more intention towards the overall finished look, with less anxiety over achieving realism, these paintings became fun and I wish that I had done more.

On my next "good day" I'll try.

For a while I settled on a minimalist seascape style that allowed me to paint in the quantity that I needed and still gave my buyers a quality artwork. I was able to keep up with the demand and fill shows with sale-able work. Despite their sale-ability though, I felt like I had somehow "sold out".

(Bottom Photo: One of my shows at the Chatham Bars Inn)

Eventually my energy and ability to hold a brush kept me from producing enough work to do these huge shows. So I did fewer shows with fewer artworks. This allowed me to concentrate on each individual painting and I really enjoyed the results.

(Yes, there are a lot of horizons, but I sell my work in a beach resort county, and the name of this blog, is Making a Living as an Artist after all.)

The final stage of my work, so far, has been total abstraction. Oddly, It is where I've always wanted to go. It is hard to pull off and, with too much expectation for the out come, can easily look contrived, or trite. For me, abstract painting is the hardest thing that I have ever done. To go from painting something how it is seen by others, to painting something how you like it to be seen was fairly easy. But, taking that next step... Painting something that no one, not even you, the Artist, has ever seen, is a daunting task. As you open yourself to that flow, you are exposing your inner most secret, you are revealing you true self for all to see and judge. It is a gapping wound, bleeding, and exposed to the world, and you are inviting others to either share it with you and tend to it, or throw salt directly into it. You have shown the world your heart and soul. It is the truest, most intimate form of communication. Understand that this is new to me, and that it is the necessary leap to be able to continue my work as an Artist. I am still learning to let go.

But still those damn horizons...

(No horizon on this one...)

As I scroll through the paintings above, It looks like the paintings further down the page are earlier works. You would think that the groupings at the top of the page were done with more learning and experience. As I scroll down, I see lessons learned and an emergence of my creativity, and I think I like where it is going.
  

As usual I would love to see any thoughts, questions, or suggestions in the comments below.

A lot of these styles did overlap. I have my good days and bad days. So, you paint the way that you are able on the days that you're able to paint.

You can read more about my MS an how it has affected me as an Artist here.