Is This Drawing Finished?

So when is a piece of art finished? That sounds like an easy, obvious thing, but not for every artist or even every piece of work. There’s always something to tweak or polish or fix. Toulouse-Lautrec is famously rumored to touch-up his own paintings, even years later when they were hanging in museums. So, check this out, would you say that it is “finished”?

Yeah, it may look half finished, but for me, this one is done. When I’m drawing with a ball-point pen, as I did here, I sometimes like to see the rough, scribbly under drawing. I do reserve the option to touch it up later when it’s hanging in a museum (yeah, right), but more likely, I’ll just take another run at this subject sometime. And what the hell is that anyway? Some weird two-headed skull, demon creature? Yes, yes it is and I was drawing from a real world reference, a photo I took myself.

This is a voodoo ritual fetish shadow figure that I saw at the incredible Musēe de Confluence in Lyon, France in an exhibition called “Zombis aux origines”. One section of the exhibition featured a dozen of these figures that had been used in actual voodoo rituals. The red you see randomly splashed on the figure is wax and/or dried blood (probably animal’s blood…). The skulls are real human skulls. I can’t imagine who sat quietly assembling this creature, what must have been going through their mind and where did they get the skulls? There are little round mirrors sewed in to the weird suit to deflect hexes and spells, and what’s up with the creepy baby doll it’s holding? I have to admit, I hesitated before I took the photos (I have more, but will dole them out over time) because these things are spiritually intimidating. I mean, I didn’t want any of that bad Ju-Ju following me home.

Until next week, don’t step in any bad Ju-Ju!

OK HW