What I enjoy about creating a piece for the Harwood Fundraiser is that I am not able to work how I normally would work which would be allowing the image to arrive. Because I have a deadline, I have to come up with an idea and execute it. Typically, and I've been participating since its inception, it's hard for me to think of what to do. That kind of thought process feels alien to me. But this year, I pretty much had my idea. I knew I wanted to do the matador/minotaur imagery. I had set up my 24" x 24" board with matador images I had collected over the years. I knew I wanted to use an image of a woman dressed as a bullfighter- she was the muse for Buffet and his matador series, and I wanted the minotaur to be in the background in a pose I had drawn from a recent figure drawing session on a small post card or mail art. I was also considering a calf or 2 coming up in front and printed them up from some photos I had taken. So I had a vision. That's rarely true.
I knew I wanted narrative, but wasn't sure what to say or where to say it. Then I was attached to the words, but couldn't quite fit them in. Then I get a call from the Harwood and of course I'm really, really late by this point, and they are pissed. I'm holding up the show. I told them it was a beast. I couldn't hurry my process. It wouldn't resolve. I got stressed out. So I painted out the parts that weren't working, which was a lot, to try and hurry things up. But then it didn't feel like me. I had to keep pushing. I was up late, up early. I felt like I needed another week. It wasn't happening. But I knew that what WAS happening, seemed different.
