Not good.
Yes good. More care!
I’ve recently moved into a new home, built around 1838. It is small and cute and cozy and absolutely nothing in it is level. 200 years of existance can do that … and so the floors are not level and yet there is a deep sense of care and comfort and rightness about the whole space.
A few weeks ago I framed a small painting, and the result wasn’t great. Similar to the house, there were no straight lines or right angles. Not-similar to the house, the overall result wasn’t good.
Maybe it is a question of asymmetric balance, or two lefts making a right, or of managed chaos. … But the poor cuts I made on the painting were amplified in the frame, and the result was, frankly, unattractive. Which was a bummer, because I really liked the actual painting. But framerd, it simply exuded carelessness, which is not a quality that tends to attract.
In an attempt to repair it … I don’t know if I “fixed” the problem, but I injected enough care into it that it has become a new object.
I filled in the float with wood filler and painted it, to visually widen the asymetric painting into the right angles of the frame. And I wound up adding acrylic accents to the watercolor and gouache base. And a signature.
By taking the time — in having the intention — to bring this painting back into the appearance of square, I think it picked up something important.
Leaving aside whether it is a good or bad painting, as an object it now seems to be embued with care. There is an apparent quality, a right-ness. A lot like the house, it is not weaker for its imperfections but shines with them.
