Warning - Content not for young eyes

There’s this story of an artist who used mixed media in her art, only to later (after the top coat was sealed) find the f-bomb in the background from a page she used in a book.  I remember laughing and thinking I learned from her lesson.  

After finishing the painting of the Native American Indian woman, something told me not to put the sealing varnish on it.  I was excited to hang up the two panel painting. I kept hearing music while painting it and imagined her dancing as God draped the landscape into the beautiful spectrum of warmth.

Then one evening, after the painting was up for about a week, my husband walked into my art studio and exclaimed, “YOU HAVE PORN IN YOUR PAINTING!”  I looked at him and calmly said, “No. I do not.”  He quoted, “He had intercourse with her.  It’s in the painting!”  

 

And I thought, “Oh, that’s right.  I looked for Native American stories and I recall the eagle talking to the man about his relations with his wife.”  I realized of course, this isn’t smutty porn like my husband implied and it wasn’t the f-bomb or any other curse words.  It’s literary writing. It’s nature, in humans and all species.  Then again, it’s in the eye of the beholder.  I decided to leave it for a while.

 

It wasn’t until I considered bringing the painting to the office where I work for our Friendsgiving gathering as part of the decorations.  It’s not an appropriate word for an office setting, so out came the black and white acrylic paint pens.  The paint swooshed back the word, back into the landscape.

 

When I shared the story with my mom, she laughed and said, “I thought you were going to say it was from a story about the city named Intercourse!” Isn’t it funny.... words...

 And that’s my mild adventure into the realm of art lessons.