About a month ago a friend of mine made a joke about my blog being named "Blog".
I said "what do you mean?" He replied "your header says Clinton T. Hobart's Blog, and blog is in big letters." It looks like you named your blog, "Blog". This is really funny to me for two reasons. One, that never even occurred to me, and two, when I was a kid I had a bear I named "Bear". Even my parents made fun of me for that one.I remember my father saying "That would be like me naming you "Boy". "I say, I say, come here boy, go and get me somethin' to drink boy" (Imagine that with the Foghorn Leghorn voice).
When most people call me on the phone they ask "What are you doing?" Usually I say "painting actually". Even though there is actually no need for the word actually in the sentence.
I struggled for over a month coming up with a title for this blog. I wanted a title that reflected the mixture of paintings, with some of the opinions, and stories I like to tell about painting, and the art world in general. One of my early ideas was to call it 'Painting And Ranting'. I thought it would be even cooler if I made that into one new word. Unfortunately painting and ranting mixed together is "panting", and I thought "that won't work". No one is going to join a blog called Clinton T. Hobart's Panting"
I came up with 'Painting Actually'. One of my favorite films is 'Love Actually'. I thought it was a very honest movie even though the stories were being acted out. That is really what I am trying to do here. There are some really great blogs out there that focus on art technique, whats going on in the art world, report on what gallery shows are out there, etc. I wanted to do something different, which is to tell real stories, and give real opinions, hopefully in an entertaining way. And of course the occasional top ten list which seems to be pretty popular.
Lastly, it reflects the fact that I spend most of my time actually painting. This blog is a hobby. I am beginning to see the word "blogger" used as a job description. Although I enjoy posting blogs I hope I am described as a painter, not a blogger. Posting blogs takes only a fraction of my time per week, the rest of the time I am painting, actually.
Thanks to everyone reading
Nice blog title, Clinton! I enjoyed reading your explanation. Folks might be interested to know that artists actually spend time pondering such things :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Eve!
DeleteThe plan for this blog is to talk about a lot of things that painters actually do and don't do.
Thanks for commenting!
Painting Actually works. You are MOST definitely a painter first and a blogger somewhere else down the line.
ReplyDeleteLoved your list of things recently posted. The one about the waiting an hour after eating to go swimming REALLY hit home with me! My parents put in a pool when I was 9. It was all the rage to strike fear into kids about NEVER going into the pool for one whole hour after eating. We would go all day with no food to avoid the one hour penalty! They said, "YOU WILL GET CRAMPS AND THE BENDS AND SINK TO THE BOTTOM!!"
I am thankful that warning has gone by the wayside! (:
Hi Peg,
DeleteI heard so many of those as a kid. Don't you wish you could go back in time and ask them "Now what scientific evidence to you have to support such an outrageous claim?" I'd love to see the look on my their face having that come from a seven year old!