Mirror
Rocky Coast, California
9.5″ X 7.75″ (Oil paint on composite wood panel)
When I meet a person and we lack a shared interest, I pay attention to their hobbies, anxieties, in short, their lives. I want to be aware enough to keep the conversation moving, but mostly I want the person to know I am interested in their character on more than a surface level. It shifts the emphasis on someone else to be stimulating so I don’t feel pressured to be or account for all the mundane ways I choose to pass time.
You get to know who people are by paying attention to what they do, not just what they say. Most of us are more than our last travel destination, our last prepared meal, or our last, “you won’t believe what I saw or did” story. But maybe that is just the difference between friendship and acquaintanceship.
May 10th, 2010 at 10:07 am
I really like that art.
It’s also interesting to note how often what people do is different from what they say they do.
May 10th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
So many people (even those we are related to) only care about what they are talking about, they don’t listen to anything else.
I like your picture.
May 10th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Do you ever meet people who don’t seem to “do” anything? It mystifies me. Like the people who get on a plane without anything to read. They just stare out the window.
May 11th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
I’m finally learning to get more information out of people in order to help keep the conversation going. Of myself, I never have much to say. Most of my living is done in my head, and I always get the oddest responses when I do talk about something that interests me.
What do you do with your paintings? Do you sell them? Is there a gallery where you show them?
May 20th, 2010 at 8:04 am
men, thanks. It’s easier to spot in others, but I suspect most of us have been guilty of it.
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sari, those interactions don’t feel much like conversations, and too much like being held captive. Thank you.
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Sabra, I have posed as one of those people, because at times my life is dreadfully dull. It difficult to have a meaningful conversation about rot repair or painting trim. I have always wondered about the “plane” people, but then maybe they people watching, or engrossed in the longest span of quiet they will experience for weeks.
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de, I find it is easier to listen than to lead the conversation for the same reasons you stated.
I stack the paintings against the wall in the basement, display space is scarce on the main level and I haven’t produced work I felt worthy of being displayed. Most of the work is “in transition” it has little continuity (which galleries like), and even the style is in flux. I have a few pieces in a gallery located in my former town, but they have been there a long time and are unlikely to sell.
May 25th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Maybe you’d sell some to me?