Brutal Exercise

Paul Dodd Crime Face Paintings in Living Room Early 2008
Paul Dodd Crime Face Paintings in Living Room Early 2008

Peggi answered the phone tonight and a guy asked to speak to Paul. I said, “Hello” and the man/boy voice said, “Fuck you” and hung up. I’m thinking it was the answer to the title of yesterday’s post.

As brutal an exercise as painting can be, it is as brutal an exercise for me to look at one of my paintings. Of course it is not entirely brutal, but close. I’m talking about looking at the finished painting and noting what goes through my mind on confronting it. Just what kind of a dialog do I have with this thing? In other words, why am I doing this?

I alone am responsible for expressing what is on the minds of these people and I need to enable them to hold up their end of an interesting conversation. The procedure for developing a painting is one part of this activity. The conversation with the finished thing is the other.

It is sort of interesting how little anyone who comes into our house has to say about these guys. If someone is not into a confrontation I completely respect that but I suspect the paintings are not speaking clearly enough yet. I think some people are afraid to look at them or they think they are so terrible they don’t want to be the position to have to comment on them so they look away. Maybe everybody has stuff like this in their living room.

I’m trying to pick a couple to enter in a show and I have a bunch of recent ones propped up in our living room. I’m leaning toward bottom left and third from left on the bottom. I’ve been adding to the group over the last month. I would like them to be more engaging.

I just finished “The Object Stares Back” by James Elkins. I fell asleep to it for the last few weeks and it surly is responsible for this entry. But he started to to piss me off because he tossed out too many ideas too quickly. I disagreed with many of his opening arguments and he didn’t take the time to defend them. On to the next entry.

3 Comments

3 Replies to “Brutal Exercise”

  1. Paul – I’m confused (again). Did you really mean
    yesterday’s post -WTF? Or the previous day’s
    post on guns? I wouldn’t be surprised if a gun
    lover made an obscene call to you. I would be
    surprised if a techie did. Do they really get
    that passionate about bits & bytes? Anyway…

    tomorrow I go to Prison again to visit my friend,
    Nikki. Prison is a trip! I’ve invited you before but
    I doubt if you seriously considered the invitation.

    I wonder how meeting some inmates might
    influence your paintings. It’s one thing to see
    them in the paper – quite another to see them
    in person. I think you might have the same
    reaction I’ve had in meeting ‘famous’ people.

    Years ago I was at a trade show in Las Vegas
    and Lorne Greene was at some booth signing
    autographs. I stood next to him pretending
    to take pictures. In person, Pa Cartright was
    really an average ‘Ben’. He was short, shy –
    obviously felt like an idiot walking around in
    his Bonanza suit and hat – and really tried to
    make small talk with his fans. But he wasn’t
    good at it. Incredibly, I felt sorry for him.

    I think that if you walked through the gates of
    a prison, you’d be amazed. All I can say is that
    there’s as much ‘show biz’ as confinement
    involved. And the inmates are just average
    dopes who got caught. If they didn’t have
    their green suits on, the whole visiting thing
    could pass as a church social. Again, it’s a trip.

    I really think you would be disappointed. Reality
    is so fucking dull-that’s why they invented drugs
    and alcohol.

    kind regards,
    paolo.

  2. bottom left definitely. and what about bottom right and 3rd from right on bottom? 3rd from right on bottom-guy is one of my faves, i mentioned 2 u b4 that he looks so real, like u r uncovering him, removing the white paint. i dont understand ppl not commenting on them, or not looking at them in your living room. i dont get it.

    what if u visited prison and saw one of your subjects there? THAT would b weird.

    hi steve. 🙂

  3. Ms. andrea – I don’t believe we’ve ever met.
    I’m Frank Paolo – Peggi & Paul’s least cool
    friend. I’ve enjoyed your insights to Paul’s
    posts.
    kind regards,
    paolo.

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