Christy Sawyer~XT Paints

Does your art talk to you? I don't mean in actual words... or do I?...  My art certainly does talk to me!  I might say, it fairly well bosses me around.  Here's what I mean:  I often produce up to 5 pieces in one session.  Some of these paintings are immediately satisfying and I know they are 'something.'  Others are just wash-outs and go immediately into a re-do pile.  Others are just 'quiet,' and go into the deliberation pile to be visited another time.  Occasionally. when I revisit them I begin to hear murmurings or rumblings of what I missed or need to pay attention to.  Other times I attempt to discard one or more of these by either placing it in the file cabinet or putting it into the re-do pile (I almost never throw anything away,) but I am unable to do so.  It's as if the piece is saying, "Hey you, pay attention to what you are paying attention to!" This is one of the latter.  It has been in the deliberation pile for months....

 I'd like to think I have a considerable amount of curiosity and hopefully, a healthy hint of skepticism.  But most likely my 'need to know' mind set results from an over-arching need for control, a basic insecurity that leaves me feeling vulnerable unless I have things neatly figured out.  I taught myself how to do video production, back in the day, when video cameras were tethered to  recording decks.  I learned to shoot, edit and produce videos for school, church, and weddings.  I even took a video recording deck apart to figure out what the parts were and how they worked.   With painting, I read everything I could, practiced with passion, gave away portraits to neighbors who were willing to sit for me, and basically taught myself how to paint.  I attended only two workshops, one on the business aspects of art, the other on incorporating photos into assemblages and mixed media.  Two problems with self-instruction is that you have blin...