I can’t even begin to express how relieved I am to be done with this painting! It’s on a 3x4 foot canvas and loaded with detail—people, architecture, textiles, pattern design, signage, stone, brick, musical instruments—it’s all there on one canvas, and it took me months to complete. People should really value slow art more than they do. As my handle suggests, I paint the footpath of my life. When I was 16, my family moved from Asheville to Raleigh, North Carolina in the summer of 1987 where, by a pool, I met Ronald, a Dutch college student visiting his parents who were in Raleigh for two years while his dad worked for IBM. Cut to 34 years later, I met up with Ronald again who still lived in Amsterdam, and with my family in tow, we celebrated Kingsday with him and his partner Patrik, which is of course when I stumbled across this scene, this group of street musicians entertaining the crowd and counting their wages in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam. While I was painting this, I happened to be scrolling Insta one day when I suddenly scrolled past a photo on a colourised history page that looked eerily familiar. Swipe left. It was an Amsterdam street scene off Jordaanstrat taken in the late 1800s, the very spot where I had encountered the scene that would become this painting. Look where the street meets the brick sidewalk—it’s nearly the same 150 years later. Process video to follow.
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