"Finger Prints"

I've been an admirer of Chuck Close for a long time.  One of the highlights of my art experience was getting to hear him talk about art at a small lecture at the High Museum in Atlanta years ago.  He was so honest and knowledgeable, he didn't speak in pretentious "art speak" but as artist to artist.  I came away so inspired.  I remember one of the things he said, something like "Its always wrong before its right."  To me that is liberating somehow - when I'm struggling with a piece those words will remind me to keep at it.

So when I was working with some 12 x 12s this week, I decided to play around with adding some finger prints to the paint.  I ended up doing the entire painting with fingerprints.  It reminded me that Chuck Close had done some large paintings that way…   Here's one of my versions: