There he sat, just facing me. ‘Hello’, we said to each other in acknowledgement. This time he didn’t buzz away. He just sat there – cleaning his long proboscis. The muse is not an entity of creative instilling that is some days with you and on others forsakes you. The muse is a willingness you develop through consistent creation to find things as a-musing.
(artist retains all rights to print reproductions of this painting)
Inspiration: artist’s own
ORIGINAL COPY POSTED ON INSTAGRAM DURING THE CHALLENGE
Yup. I painted a fly. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta acknowledge the weird things that come to you without questioning the motif.
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This enormous horse fly has been flying into my studio persistently for the last week. Every day I would capture him inside a jar and ferry him back outside where he would literally buzz off.
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Today I captured him and studied him through the bottle. Sure, flies aren’t graceful or cute or regal or elegant creatures and they often represent death and disease, but it occurred to me that if you’re not going to stop to marvel at the dark, the macabre, the morose, the insignificant and the icky – well, are you then really accepting of life as a whole?
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I took him outside to the rocket in the veggie patch. He climbed very willingly out into the bush and then, clambered up a stem, onto a protruding leaf and out onto the furthest point that balance would allow. There he sat, just facing me. ‘Hello’, we said to each other in acknowledgement. This time he didn’t buzz away. He just sat there – cleaning his long proboscis.
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‘Hmmm, so I guess I’m painting a fly today’ I announced to the surrounding veggies.
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And you know… they really are quite captivating.
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And then it dawned on me. The muse is not an entity of creative instilling that is some days with you and on others forsakes you. The muse is a willingness you develop through consistent creation to find things as a-musing.
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🙃