The art wants what the art wants.

I had a great vision for my final “cat-in-1900s-attire” series.  Little Greta was the model, with curly hair sticking out of her ears, round little body, and a sweet face.  She would be my matriarch.  I had envisioned her with a Victorian high-neck lace collar that covered shoulders and chest.  I wanted her to look somewhat stern and also grandmotherly.  But, the drawing did not like that.  I fought, redrew, and did everything to make that vision happen.  Greta was not having it.  The high lace collar made her anatomy too human, The idea of giving her shoulders somehow made her look like a portrait of a sea captain.  I was clearly not in charge of my drawing, but I realize I rarely am.  My vision of a drawing changes as it is created.  The artwork takes on a personality and if I try to force it into something it doesn’t want to be, it will fight until I win (the outcome is never pretty) or it wins and I let it tell its story.  She did let me put a shaw, spectacles, and a cameo on her, but that was as far as she was willing to go.

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