Looking back I really loved the rules I made for this series of paintings. It was my first real painting project. After my first several attempts at abstract on canvas (I'd been playing with a lot of paint on paper for a while) I decided that I wanted to commit to a crazy number of paintings, 100, and just play around with abstract.

I was going to do it in sets of 5, each set only using 5 colors, and sponsored by a person if possible. If there was a sponsor for the series, they got to pick out a number of the colors. If it was me, I got to chose, but only 5.

It was basically me deciding to bash my head up against abstract painting to just keep on asking myself the question, 'what if I?' over and over and over. A drive that unfortunately gets buried under all the other aspects of art and business and turns into, 'what should I?'

Looking back at the quote I put next to it in an ebook I wrote about the series, I have to laugh:

I wanted people to look at this one, kinda be smacked in the face. In that second they take to look closer, suddenly being pulled into the layers the gray and blue make, and then distracted again by the white. I wanted people to wonder about this one.

Do you know how hard it is to get peoples attention nowadays? You probably do.

It really is a battle for attention, to get people to look at the details, kick the tires a bit, take it out for a spin...dopamine trigger after dopamine trigger, addicts addicted to the addiction.

But that's also the fun of it...how to combine the two. The smack in the face, get that attention, draw that moment, and hopefully catch something. But also so many different ways to smack people in the face visually depending on the vibe you wanna create...

I think I was in a happy mood for this, playful, probably because it was number 92 of 100. The colors were also a challenge, the rules I had put myself in. This series was sponsored and they picked colors I wasn't quite comfortable with. I mean...orange with gray and blue? At least for me, not as natural as others. But, the point of, 'what if I?' Throwing myself fully into it. Now, love these colors and have seem them emerge several times since in unexpected ways.

Publishing these pieces of my past and making them live forever here is pulling me like a thread through a series of memories and feelings, helping to tie a lot together.

While bashing my head against the latest challenge that is this new world, a moment from before.

Wessel '21

Note: Winner of this NFT will also receive the physical copy of the painting, a 16x20 acrylic on canvas. Shipping within the United States is included. Shipping international will require the exchange of fiat currency to cover costs.