Life is Strange, Art is Stranger

Ask my college friends, I was not a fan of abstract art. I spoke vehemently against its inclusion as a recognized art form. It wasn't that I didn't like it, it's just that I didn't see a point in displaying something some dude made when he accidentally tripped over a can of paint.

Fast forward 10 years. I'm sitting at my computer, trying to learn about Photoshop. I begin to play with filters and discover the liquify setting. Liquify, I come to find, causes your picture to behave as thought it were wet paint; you can smear the paint and move it around with a digital finger. Thus, I created my first abstract art. While I found visual pleasure in this work, my mind still rebelled, saying, "That's not art." Yet, as a creation of my own, it needed to be assimilated into my life, accepted in some way. I had to find a way to satisfy both my love of design, yet sate my distaste for what I consider fake art.

Simply enough, I was able to embrace my new found pastime through a simple title: Faux Art #1 - Water Flowing. My strange art has since been validated as an interesting and likeable medium. I sold Water Flowing at a garage sale, one of the first pictures I ever sold. Mollie will often look over my shoulder at a piece I am working on and say something to the effect of "Wow." (or, "I don't really like that one as much"). Since then, I have created over 25 images in my Faux Art series. It is so strange to have found myself working on the side I had argued against in my (earlier) youth, persuaded to persist only by a simple naming device.

As a brief aside, Art is no stranger . . . he was my barber when I was a kid. (But he did have a handlebar mustache, which is kind of strange.)