From the Middle- Part 2

So, as I have previously stated, middle children are obviously the best children.  Unlike oldest children, who always feel entitled, we middle children understand that the only way to make something happen is with real effort.  And youngest children, always generating drama and pulling the spotlight to themselves, only generate work.  And only children, Aye!  Don't even get me started about only children!  But middle children, we are the peace makers, the unifiers, the harmonizers, the volunteers...really we are like  Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter, and barbershop quartet singers all rolled into one.  Sure, we may not be glamorous or cool, but we keep the world from falling apart!  Grad school brought all of my understanding about these things to a sharp point, as I realized how much I relied on my central  position when, say, reaching for art imagery (from daily life- nothing to risky or controversial), or selected media ("how about wood scraps, high-school-grade acrylics and hot glue- I've got plenty of that already laying around"), or composed paintings ("I know it's pretty, I tried not to make it pretty, but it always comes out pretty!").  This was not good.  Art school is about turning your self loose to make waves.  I mean, Pablo Picasso was an oldest child, maybe the ultimate oldest child, the take-charge, because-I said-so-and-I-am-in-charge kind of oldest child.  And Jackson Pollock was a youngest child, the moody, dramatic, pour-your-soul-out-for-everyone-else-to-soak-up kind of youngest child.  I knew that I had to either accept that I would never make it as an artist, because I was programed to not make waves, or find a way to make waves from the center, from the middle, positioned in between, as it were.

And there was my answer.  I was not meant to make paintings of "real" things, and I was not meant to make "abstract paintings."  I was supposed to make paintings that were a little bit of both. I was not supposed to make the beautiful ugly or the ugly beautiful.  I was meant to take disparate items and to try to make them get along, to harmonize the situation, like Jimmy Carter.

And this all leads to today, painting a picture of chewing gum and a Beatles album, trying to make them get along.

P.S.-  So, I want to apologize and just try to smooth things over with my oldest son, my youngest son, my wife, who is a youngest child, her sister, who is an oldest child, my oldest sister, my youngest sister, my mom who is a youngest child, my dad who is an only child and my in laws, both oldest children.

Please visit my work at kevinpkellyart.artspan.com