A false start
I had clowns on the mind, and umbrellas kept making appearances in my paintings. I had the idea of an adorable teddy bear confronted with his worst mistakes, but painfully missed the “adorable” mark at the time of this photo.
The better features of the painting start to take shape. I kept thinking of the feeling when you mess up so bad you don’t even try to stop the consequences. Dropping a piece of glass on ceramic tile, rear ending someone on your way to work, saying something you shouldn’t have…
After resolving the bear and the clown mouth it needed more story. I used Procreate to develop a few ideas and landed on adding wanted posters to the alley wall.
This is one of the few paintings I was fully satisfied with in 2021— it hung in my home for over a year.