James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903) believed that a painting "is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end has disappeared...To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for few...Industry in art is a necessity - not a virtue - and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work."
Oops.
I LOVE showing all the layers upon layers and marks and scrapings and WORK! It is my first intention that you see "all trace of the means used to bring about the end." I find all the raw applications and stories of the build-up in the image quite exciting and beautiful. So, call me insufficient; I'll embrace the term.
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