Art Gallery: What You Think of As Beauty is Merely Good Looking

What You Think of As Beauty is Merely Good Looking (2001)
Watercolors, gold spray paint and olive oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

This piece is one of several that featured the use of olive oil (yes, the same kind you use on your food) mixed with the paints. Combined with the gold spray paint foundation (which greatly enhanced the richness of the colors but caused a host of long-term problems), this would result in the paint flaking away, eventually wearing away most of the painting.

The Spider-Man painting didn't use gold spray paint, and so was spared this problem. But I have seen it happen with You Can Be Loved and this piece (to a lesser extent). It's all part of the learning process. Fortunately, I was able to take photos of these paintings while they were still in the prime of their youth.

I sold this painting years ago, back around 2001-2003, and so have no idea as to its current (2017) condition. Hopefully the buyer didn't merely become frustrated that throw everything away. Hopefully most of the original paints remained intact. Who knows, maybe self-destructing art becomes the next big thing? Passage of Time, Everything Is Ephemeral, yadda yadda blah blah blah. You can sell the public on anything with the right sales pitch.

In any case, I really liked this piece, especially the rich colors and the way the oil interacts with the watercolors.