I spent some of my studio time this morning carving paintings that I was not happy with into bookmarks. It’s something I do with some regularity. I am often surprised how many really nice little bookmark paintings come out of my larger paintings that I was unhappy with, or were downright awful.

I sell the bookmarks for a buck or two at art shows, but more often I give them away to friends, or visitors to my studio who may or may not buy anything. Sometimes, if I have enough of them, I will make them available when I do showings in galleries. It’s cheap art, with signature on the front and a sticker on the back reminding them where it came from. From time to time those people who took a cheap or free bookmark come back and buy a painting.

So it’s cheap art. And it’s a good life lesson too, that often we can fail at something, but if we have the patience to step back and relook at things, we can find elements of beauty and success in the pieces of failure.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom