Within you, without you ...

[Mike McCarty]

I penned this little diddy a few months ago and decided not to post it fearing that it was too provocative. HA!

Do you look into, or out from your painting?



Oh, this is lovely! I love the way you

[Carol Norton]

OK, Mike, you have just ruined me. I will no longer be able to read nor write entries on the Forum or any other art commentaries with ANY kind of seriousness nor without a chuckle. OK, fine! That's it. I'm done. Two categories.

[Julie Deane]

Thanks for a good read, Mike.

I must be a product person - to me it's the end result that counts.

The "perfect" white, the "correct" canvas, vermilion vs. cadmium, the use of photos vs. life drawing....I read this forum to improve my artwork. That's the bottom line. The information is here; I get to select what I choose to use and ignore the parts I don't find helpful. Personality clashes and diatribes get in the way, so I ignore them too, and concentrate only on what will help me to be a better artist.

"Take what you like and leave the rest".

[Alexandra Tyng]

I love it, Mike! That was so true!

One more little thought: A process person judges the product person's art by the process. . .while the product person judges the process person's art by the product.

Buyers, gallery personnel, and competition judges are for the most part seeing only the product.

I think I am definitely a product person, but I do love the process of painting, too. In fact I've been enjoying it more and more. It makes me sad when other artists don't like or respect my work when my process is different from theirs. But now you have given me a way of understanding it--thanks for that, Mike!

[Steven Sweeney]

Perhaps the fun is in the process, the pride in the product, the joy in the entire effort. Why two opposing camps? Seems as though carving these into discrete, polarized parts misses something essential.

My beginning brush stroke is the first part of my product (or more accurately, my intended result). The product is the last step in my process. The parts show in the whole, so I try to use good parts. The revisions I make in a short story, including the deletions, are within the final draft. The first sentence is the story, as is the last. Changing either produces a different story. Polished sentences tell a tale different from less deliberate expression, even if the morals of the stories are pretty much the same.

I wasn