Lady in red: On art and being difficult

It’s ‘Five minute Friday’ time, joining with Lisa-Jo Baker.

She gives us 1 word,

we write for 5 minutes flat – no backtracking or editing, throwing caution to the wind.

Check out others’ five-minute offerings by clicking on the button below.

Sometimes I get a bit paranoid about the fact that I have a blog that is mainly about suffering and difficult things. I read other people’s positive blogs on encouraging topics, and I worry that I focus too much on the topics that people find it painful to look at.

We’re all short of time and energy – why on earth would people want to read a post where they are made to feel uncomfortable rather than uplifted?  I am frequently discomforting, I know.

I am difficult. I am high-maintenance. I am demanding.

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We have two paintings at home. They are Art with a capital A.

One is a fluid, fun picture of our local town, and people look at it, and say, ‘that’s nice’. Another is a huge canvas with swirling colour all over it.  It is passionate and chaotic and loud.

People look at it, puzzled. Then we say, ‘it’s called Lady in Red’, and they look again, and they say, ‘oh’ – and they start to make sense of the image a bit more as they see the lady in red at the centre of the picture, and see the energy that surrounds it. They stare at it for longer.

Some people still don’t like it. But for those who stop and look beyond their initial impression, most find it more rewarding than the universally-appealing, instantly-accessible landscape. It’s more demanding, but more rewarding.

This is the ‘art’ that I seek to make, and I humbly  thank you, dear reader, for ‘getting’ it. It means a lot.

I am demanding. I earnestly hope to be rewarding.

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As I write this, I realise that this also describes the person that I hope to be. For those of you who experience my demanding loud-ness and moments of swirling chaos and see in the midst of it the lonely lady in red and the passion and glimpses of beauty in the picture – I thank you.

Over to you:

• If you were a painting, what kind of art would you be (or like to be)?
• If you are a writer or artist, what characterises your art?

This week my Five-minute-Friday was inspired by a brilliant post by another Five-minute-Friday-er, Amy in Wanderland. Her blog is brilliant. Check out ‘The trouble with ugly art’

It was also inspired by this fantastic article, written by the instantly-accessible, universally-appealing, yet still thought-provoking Jeff Goins. Check out ‘Art helps us deal with suffering’