When I was thirteen my teacher screamed, “You think that shoulder looks good don’t you?” He was sitting beside me a little behind so he would keep an eye on me. We were drawing a woman and that shoulder on my paper was hanging too low off the neck and too far away from mid center but it was the best looking thing I’d drawn in a month. It was a happy mistake and it was SO PRETTY so I had been struggling for a half hour trying, but failing, to adjust the rest of the body to the nice shoulder but being very careful not to ruin it.

My friend reached across me and gouged a giant X across the pretty shoulder. I gave up. I quit trying to draw a bad picture around a “pretty” mistake.

A man could give a pink rose to a woman and put it in her hair behind her ear and see it was pretty. So he could buy her a dun colored dress that wouldn’t compete. The dress looked ugly brown on the unhappy woman but he was dedicated to preserving the prettiness of his rose.  Then he could take her to his barber and have a swath of her hair shaved off behind the rose to show it off. Then he could drop her off at home and defoliate her front yard to make that pretty pink rose was featured. Picasso suggested that when you’re making a piece of art and discover something PRETTY destroy it at once!

I consider the picture below as one of my failures for several reason including the pretty problem. Some people like it. That’s fine but I keep the thing for me. I’m still learning from my what I consider its problems. I’d love to have you see my better pieces and give me you thoughts.   nancymauerman.com

Death Tree – Framed