New painting: WWII

WWII
Acrylic and chalk on paper
4ft by 3ft

This is a picture where there's different things going on on each side of the picture, almost like they're two different scenes. On the left is a group of individuals gathered. On the right is a (likely difficult to see) woman playing a violin and a man above her leaning over a road. There's a house in the middle and above that in the chimney smoke the face of a child. I don't know if there's much of a story to the picture. I try and make something and if a story or figures come through, that would be nice. If not, that's okay. In this case some figures do come through.

woman playing violin

House

child's face in the smoke

man leaning over the road

I'm really just having fun with color and patterns and textures though and if something comes through it's sort of like making up a story for it when it does.

It's hard. I understand that some people might think that a picture or a drawing should stand on it's own, that it shouldn't require an explanation. I know, for me, for someone who's interested in the things people make, I get the most out of those things when I know where they come from, when I hear the artist's perspective. I remember for a long time not really understanding why Andy Warhol was so interesting. When you read his book or see the documentary about his life, and hear his voice come through, hear his perspective on things, why he made what he made, it makes all the difference. All the sudden I could see why it was beautiful, why it was valued. I feel like these days you have to somehow incorporate your voice into the things you make. There's no time to wait around and see if people will ask questions. That time will likely never come. Whenever I see an interesting picture or an interesting piece of art, it makes me want to hear someone's perspective on the thing, maybe even the artist's if possible. I don't like hearing highly conceptual explanations for things. I would rather know something human about the artist, about why they made it rather than what it means. I feel like that's missing, the human connections to objects. There is so much stuff to see these days, but very little explanation from a human side about why it's here, what purpose it serves, who it's for. I feel like that's the heart of everything though.