In Art, I Throw Down the Gauntlet
What does “Throw down the Gauntlet” mean? Long ago it was an actual physical thing-a formal challenge to a duel but today the phrase “throw down the gauntlet” means confronting yourself or someone else in some way.
Sometimes when I’m struggling with a piece my frustration might build, so I choose
to step away and I say “F—- It!”
I throw down the gauntlet. In art it’s the point where I say “F—- It!” My precious piece has gone vanilla, gotten stuck, and I can’t think my way out of it, so I make a physical change. I drop paint, grab a marker, or I use a bold, big brush stroke, erase something, tear, cut, scratch at it, or add black or white, or I cover something over entirely. The funny thing? That moment can open a door to a better piece of art.
Here’s one example of that moment. I carefully painted two baby elephants to practice my watercolor skills.I was thinking of characters that might appeal to children. Usually I paint the whole animal, but in this project I decided to paint carefully in parts and be patient for drying between layers. In the end, I was pleased by the outcome, but generally, the process had been tight and uncomfortable, and the elephants had a white background which seemed dull to me.
I stepped back and asked myself, “What do I like and not like about these paintings?”
The answer was that I liked the elephants and hated the white background. Frustrated, I picked up my scissors and started cutting. It can’t get worse. I’ll either ruin it and learn more, or I’ll make it better. Still not sure where I was headed, I put the elephant characters on the table. In the corner of my eye, I saw my box of decorative papers that I use for making greeting cards. For weeks I’d been trying to get together with a Meet Up group that collages, but never made it there.
Why not collage right now? I asked myself?
Not sure where I was headed, I opened the box and started pulling out papers and mixing and matching pieces. The elephant paintings were transformed. Bringing out the scissors had been my moment of throwing down the gauntlet and, finally, with the collage papers I was playing again, counting out my steps, I’d killed off the old precious idea of what my art should look like. I stopped thinking or over-thinking. Instead,
I leaned into my intuition to make the pieces.
I didn’t need to figure out what to do to deal with the baby elephant pieces. I already knew. I just had to say F-It and go back to what I knew. I knew I wanted the two paintings to go together in a children’s room setting and to have a sweetness, like you could hear a lullaby playing in the background. I knew I’d been wanting to collage but hadn’t had the confidence to start the mixed-media work, even with a seasoned group of artsy friends.
I didn’t know everything…and that’s okay, because by the time you throw down the gauntlet, you know you can’t turn back.
I didn’t know if I could collage the thick watercolor paper well with the thin decorative papers. I didn’t know if anyone would like the pieces as much as I do or if anyone might buy them. I didn’t know if I’d smudge or wrinkle or ruin the pieces by adding glue. But I had taken the turn, thrown down the handkerchief, and said, “Enough!” It’s time to get down to the real work.
How many times in art and life do I wish I’d embraced this?- in dull teacher’s meetings, dry lectures, listening to pompous speakers or politicians? Enough, F-It, change it up, be real, tell the truth, get to the heart, trust intuition, be honest. What a different life we’d be living, and what different art we’d be creating! It’s vulnerable. It’s exposed. It’s simple but not always easy. But that’s life.