This semester and especially this week I've been struggling with composition. My paintings are very frontal and I've really gotten used to painting quickly, but I've been diving into my compositions too quickly and they have been suffering because of that.  Since I place the subject in right in the viewers face and don't focus much on the background it makes them less interesting. Although I'm spending less time on each painting, I still would like for someone to stop and look at it rather than walk right past after glancing because they think there isn't much to see. I've started to look at Frans Hals' drunken portraits for inspiration. They are simple and painted with detail but you can tell there is immediacy to his brushstrokes. He does not pay any more attention than needed to the portraits, especially since they seem to be of low status people. He does some interesting things with cropping, negative space and shadows that I'll begin to take into consideration more as I'm forming my compositions!

I've been thinking about simplicity in art work a lot lately. First of all because the paintings I have been working on require a lot of simple thinking. Also, I have been spending a lot of time with my almost-two year old cousin. Her favorite thing to do is for me to read her books. I remember this being my favorite thing as a child as well. I will never understand why kids love to be told the same story over and over again, but it may be hard to understand as an adult. The best stories are still the simplest ones. From my obsession with Dr. Seuss as a child, I'm pretty confident that I could recite How the Grinch Stole Christmas to out entire class this Friday if I really tried. To be honest, those stories are still my favorite ones. Maybe for the repetitive rhyming or the goofy and familiar illustrations. Spending so much time reading to my cousin and revisiting my Seuss days has inspired me to write my own children's story about a girl with big, wild hair. Its been a really fun side project to work on that reminds me of the genius in simplification, which is something I'll always try to remember while making work.

Seussville!