Union Square

Here's a painting of Union Square, 8x10 oil, 3 hours-ish.

I am out of bright opaque yellow paint so I substituted Indian yellow and lemon yellow.... not my faves..... (Jerry's order arriving on Tues)

I also forgot my tape and that was....challenging.... I need it to hold my palette papers. (I knew I was forgetting something...)

The temp dropped and I got so cold despite gloves and hand warmers that I couldn't apply the paint properly... and my verticals on the right are not so vertical and this is frustrating. :/ This is a bad tendency and I need to fix it.

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Definitely a challenge, and I can't get this painting out of my head from a few years ago.

It is an 8x10 (!!) oil. This is a sick painting.

I even pulled up David's painting on Instagram and went to where he was located.....and...... I think he moved stuff around. Like buildings.  I was standing near where he had to be and it didn't line up.

That's some real ballsy awesome stuff, moving buildings around in Union Square.... I move trees and rearrange nature if needed, everyone does, but rearranging Union Square is something else.

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So I decided to try the chaos of Union Square.

My painting is not as fabulous as David's, not even close, so... goals.

But it was a nice day out.

Many, many people came to say hi and admire my painting.

One, I have just found out, is my Facebook friend but we have never met in person!

One man- who looked like he's had better days- carrying a guitar covered with stickers came over to inspect the painting. He said, "It looks.... happy." I told him it is a happy painting.  He said "You don't know Union Square." To which I replied yes I do, it's all in how you see things.

Here is what was going on and why it is a happy painting:

I painted this smack in the middle of:

• A Black Lives Matter protest
• 2 women selling ashtrays shaped like vaginas
• A man singing Allah Akbar- the call to prayer that happens at Union Square
• A crazy lady spreading fear protesting against children wearing masks (they will get early childhood dementia from lack of oxygen she says)
• Kids skateboarding
• Artists selling art
• People being people
• A man wearing an inflatable T-Rex costume bouncing around and making people laugh

And I felt so at peace with all of it.

I love that there is a place where all that can come together and happen at the same time, and it was peaceful. Even though I don't think anyone else felt peaceful, but I did.