2011challenge - Work

I chose this to represent the theme work because not only did the artist "work" (labor) but he also created a "work" (a piece of tangible art).

Today, during worship service we had the artist William Butler create original acrylic paintings right before our eyes! He had a groundcloth laid out with his easel, paints and tools and started out with one "painting" done in charcoals and black paint, which was layered into another "painting" with bright spring yellows/greens vignette at canvas edge which morphed into another "painting with a crimson crucifix, which changed into another "painting" with palm fronds and the Christ's face, then finally becoming this last painting with the word
H O S A N N A stencil framing the fronds with a different view of Christ's face. When you get up close, you can see the many different layers, the camera does not truly show the layering

William Butler used his hands 60% of the time to lay down the paint, a palette knife and brush about 20%, his stencils and templates with spray paints for 18%, with water sprinkling and cloth dabbing the last 2%.
Each time he paused I thought he had completed the work, but then he would continue to add layers.
There are at least five finished paintings in the layers of this finished piece. He could have stopped at any of these points (in my humble opinion) with a beautiful picture.

Check out some of his videos to see what I mean about the layering. The "Everything" high speed is fast paced, but a tad dark to view, "Comeback" does a better job of showing the paintings being layered.