the Parrot Painting... part 1

About 6 months ago, my chiropractor asked for a fine art painting from me. I do a graphic design trade with him for chiropractic care. I have been working with him since 2013 when I was totally broke, on the balls of my butt and he agreed to barter with me, when I had suddenly developed sciatica. 

I have made him business cards for both his businesses and upgraded his website with my simple html skills, but for the past year he has also been working on my roommate as part of my trade to cure him of arthritis.

 My roommate is on SSDI and could never afford chiropractic as he lives on the $802 check. He used to sit down cross-legged on the street because he could not stand up. I told my chiro about him in passing - wondering what I could do for him - and he told me to bring him in - even though neither of us can afford to pay him Federal Reserve Notes.

I am indebted to this guy forever... and he loves parrots.

He asked me to do a painting of a parrot for him - with the typical scene  - sunset/rise, ocean, palm trees etc. I do not paint scenes like this usually - but I said "Of course!"

I thought about this for a long time. How to do a parrot painting that is interesting? If I just did a parrot painting, I knew it would suck. I am not a good realist painter although long ago I did do plein air - but that was 20 years ago now - I needed to figure out how to do a parrot scene in my current style to stay authentic and convey my true appreciation for this kind man who has and continues to help us so much. 

I literally thought about this painting for at least a month without doing anything. First, I bought a 1 lb block of skulpy because I thought I could do relief of the feathers and wings with sculpy.

Next, I bought some flashing at the Home Depot, where I work, and some tin snips. I can't use my jig saw in my apartment very well, so it occurred to me to use sheet metal and gorilla glue for the basis of my relief work.

I grabbed one of my cupboard doors that I have and cut out a piece of metal in the shape of a parrot. I drilled holes in it and nailed it to the wood.

Then I traced the head and rolled out some sculpy and made a parrot head out of sculpy.

At the same time, I also put a crushed Natural Ice can on the bird body. I did not like the sculpy head very much but it took me about a month to give up on that idea entirely. I did not want to give it up because I had spent something like $17 with shipping on that sculpy but I really did not like it.

A lot of times it takes me a really long time to decide what I am going to do. I generally have to think of every course of action I could possibly take when I am beginning a piece of art before I act, otherwise I do things I regret or waste money, as in the sculpy. I will use it for something else I am sure, of course, but I can be very impulsive and then quickly change my mind. Hence my art studio is filled with trash I randomly pick up off the street but then never use. I finally throw it away and then immediately need it - so to avoid this situation, I wait, mull, and contemplate, and eventually the answer comes or the willingness to jump in comes. I am like this with everything, actually. It only does not work for me when I am standing in the river of freezing cold water and I refuse to dunk myself - and am just frozen with apprehension until I can just DO IT! I have found that I can use art to practice for taking risks and being intuitive and creative in life.