For some people it's their food touching on a plate but for me it was when all my paints were touching on the palette.  I would change my palette frequently for a fresh start.  In life I am always changing directions and learning.  I felt like I had to make every turn into a fresh start.  This feeling was unnecessary.  The greatest paintings come from a dirty palette.  It's all the colors you're trying and using, it's a reminder of what works and what doesn't work; in life it is all that you have learn and the paths you go down that make you into your greatest self.  The painting is not great until the palette  is dirty.

       It's the frustration of using the finest brush with the thickest paint and creating a painterly photograph.  Taking a photograph and putting my own power and emotion behind it through every mark I make.  Many say this is just copying or that I should paint something that can't be photographed, but I challenge myself to alter the image and make it into a piece that people can read.  They can read each brush stroke when up close but from a distance one can appreciate crisp lines, depth, and colors that can tie together any room in a home.  Its the scene from the photograph but from a different perspective.     

       The most famous painters are the crazy ones.  The ones that got into trouble and went through tough times but learned from every moment and used art as their escape or as their voice.  The canvas can be used for so many things; an escape, a message, a form of rebellion, a creative outlet, to relax, to speak, to express, to feel...  

The famous painters made it big because they learned from every moment and remembered every success. They used their life to influence their work then other people heard their story, loved their work and spread the word.  Then the artist commits suicide or suddenly dies and everyone has a reason to talk about them and they become famous.  Their dirty palette made them great.