Recently I came across a video (see below) by one of my favorite painters, Brice Marden. A “Theory of Painting” start out saying, one of the things about painting is “it stays that way. You’re different, but it remains the same.”
Two years ago Darin, Wet Paint’s General Manager, saw maybe “the best painting ever” at the Figge Art Museum in Dubuque. It was Jackson Pollock’s, “Mural,” (featured image for this post) on loan from the Museum of Art at the University of Iowa. Jay, Wet Paint’s delivery service and handyman, stopped by the museum a few days later and was totally awed. The next summer we went to see the Pollock which by that time was at the Des Moines Art Center. Jay didn’t believe it was the same painting. The lighting was so different from one museum to the other, it completely changed the painting.
Right now I am reading “Poser – My life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses” by Claire Dederer. This personal memoir moves between growing up in the 1970s and the present, with chapters organized by the poses of her yoga practice. She writes about her attachment to books in her youth as a way to cope with separated parents. As a child she would read “Little Women” over and over again because it didn’t change; the story was the same every time she read it and that gave some permanence to a life in flux.
“My life in 30 Years of Art Supplies” would feature at least one chapter on how hard it is for people, artists, employees, customers, to accept change. I’ve always thrived on change myself. That is until I met the internet. It seems that Facebook changes how you find your friends about every other day.
This circuitous route brings me to announce a change at Wet Paint. This is the soft opening of our new website. http://www.wetpaintart.com. Our computer system which runs everything from cash registers to mailing lists offered a new platform for our website. It promises changes that will enhance your online experience with Wet Paint. We have tried to present our instore culture with online content as well as offering online sales too. It has been a long process because we are constantly changing our products, offering new events, writing new content. So bear with us while we work out the kinks. There are some links that the vast web of the internet hasn’t found yet.
http://www.figgeartmuseum.org/
http://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/.