Matti Paints- Subject Mark

Mark I think is the first time that I'm not completely satisfied with the outcome. The strange thing is, I can't really put my finger on why.
This is Mark.

 

Me and Mark have been friends for several years now. I feel like I know him better than I know some of my family. I think that’s why I found this experience more difficult than the others.

It was strange. I fully expected this paint job to go quickly and easily, but it seemed the more work I put into it, the more laboured and difficult it became. The more I worked on it, the more I felt like it was getting away from me.
It started out great. His colour palate was based off of sushi- an unusual choice, but something that holds a lot of weight and significance for both of us and our friendship as a whole. Perhaps that should have been my first hint- the wasabi green and the bright blood red are perfectly at odds on the colour wheel. They’re made to clash. The fact that his other colour was a brown certainly didn’t help matters. This palate seemed almost designed to be at odds with itself and was further helped by the white and grey. I guess I was overly optimistic about how the colours would interact, but in the end I found that it was much more of a struggle than I thought it would be.

The playlist was also strange. The more I look into it the more realize the songs are diametrically opposed. Heavy songs like Beautiful City that are packed with emotion next to Runaway... most of the songs are songs that tie us together... but the more I look at it, the more I realize that many of them have a hint of a negative connotation. Perhaps the painting of Mark was my way of letting go of the issues we had. Burrying the tensions under layers of green and red.

Mucho Musical Theatre. We do love our showtunes.

I don’t feel like I was truly able to capture who Mark is. Maybe it’s because of the colour but for this paint job I couldn’t really place him into a role in my head. I couldn’t really figure out who Mark was- maybe it’s because we’re so close, but it was strange to not be able to place Mark into a box to be able to work around.
I started out with pure contrast, diving into the lime green and red anticipating a sense of playfulness and instead finding a hard combination that mixed to some very pretty oranges and browns. The more work I did on it, the more I fought with it. I really wanted to show Mark as the amazing and incredibly talented person I know him to be. Do I think I succeeded?

Song 1

Song 2

Song "AH! I JUST DROPPED THE PALATE ON THE FLOOR!"

Song "Almost done"

Now, despite the hardships in the painting process I do think the photo captures a bit of the experience. Some very humorous things happened- including dropping the palate on the floor (Bad side down) and having to whip off my tshirt to clean it in time...

Overall, I'm not completely satisfied with the results and would be up to trying again. However, I'm prepared to recognize that this is one of the few palates where I had no comfort zone. 

I'm used to playing with blues and purples. Asking me to paint in green and red is not only a challenge, but it might even be the thing that I feel kept me from meeting Mark's true potential. Maybe its just me, but I am still proud to present: Mark.