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We all know that art is not the truth, art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. ~Pablo Picasso

This composition began as a crayon sketch doodled while I interacted with a group of 3 yr. olds. I had been browsing an old (rather thick) book titled A Concise History of Modern Art while in the teacher's breakroom earlier, and felt inspired to try something different than my usual representational art. The only thing I had on my mind was to create a pleasing composition using circles and swirls. My color choices were very limited, as was my time, so I worked loosely using mostly full-arm motions. After noticing how many famous 20th century artists named at least one of their paintings "Composition" I was going to jokingly do the same.... but then when I looked at it later it struck me that it was not such a random thing as I had thought. A name came to me: Trinity.

The following Sunday at Anawim I took out the art supplies and had another go at the composition. Using oil pastels I could give it a more painterly look. Notice the color values in this are reversed from the other versions.

Next I decided to take a shot at doing an acrylic painting beginning with a tonal black-and-white underpainting. I laid a foundation of textures and values over which I was going to glaze color. I bought some acrylic gloss medium for this purpose, as well as some new paint and canvases (I love Jo-ann's 40% off coupons!). As I sort of randomly turned the painting around I saw that when in the "portrait" position it resembled a figure of a person. So I decided to keep it in that orientation.

Tuesday night at the art table I continued to work on the color glazing and details. My 9 yr. old friend, Mercy, daughter of Steve Kimes, inspired me to add some gold and silver paint. I added a "halo" at the top of the figure and a few small gold details. It may still undergo more work before I declare it finished... or I may just sign it and give it a final coat of gloss medium. I'll have to think on it. After all, art is a process. There is often much more going on in the doing of it than what you see in the final work.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. ~Scott Adams 'The Dilbert Principle'