Bankrupt but unbroken is an appropriation of Rembrandt's Self Portrait with Beret, 1659. 

 

When I finished my painting; I thought it was done but it is not. Rembrandt famously agreed, "A painting is finished when the artist says it is finished."  This painting is not finished.

 

One problem with this painting is that it is not right when I look at it from a distance of 20 feet. At that distance, it is suppose to reflect Rembrant's original; whereas at 2 feet it is meant to dissolve into arbitrary pieces of color and such. This lack of ambiguity makes this work seem horrible to me. I need to digest this work more; then maybe one day I will fix it.

 

Feedback, from someone who really likes this painting as it is now, is not as helpful as specific feedback from someone who would change this or that. But even that is not enough; as  artist, I must be my harshest critic. I paint because I have to. Such a drive can not really accommodate another's aesthetic; it express my originality.  Though for sure, I listen and appropriate from the other's criticism and work.

 

Formula and style can never fully express the necessary curious experimentation of an original artist. Rembrandt's last paintings were so original that he went bankrupt financially.

 

TNN 4/7/2016