The Break
man admiring painting by Millet in Getty Centre, LA
G. Boersma
acrylics on masonite
23.6" x 17.7" or 60 x 45 cm
2009
SOLD
What A Big Bluish Fly Has Taught Me
Bzzz, tick, bzzz. Tick. Buzzz. That was the annoying sound I heard while working hard on my painting The Break in my studio.
I layed my brushes aside and start looking around where it came from. Perhaps I could do something about it and get back to painting immediately. Bzz, bzzz. I looked everywhere. Bzz, tick, bzzz. I couldn’t find it, it drove me crazy!
After searching for it with no results whatsoever I finally stepped outside my studio. In the hallway against the window I saw this huge, huge, I mean really huge black bluish fly. Not only noisy, but outright ugly too. It got in through a small open top window and now tried desperately to get out. Working pretty damn hard to escape.
It kept on bumping into the same spot of the window over and over. All of a sudden it stopped, walked around a little and did some more bumping into another spot it already tried about a hundred times.
It fell down a couple of times too, walked around in circles on the window-sill, flew away and tried its original plan again and again. All the time not noticing the open window just inches above where it kept on hitting its head.
As I tried to catch it with a towel I thought hard work isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Here’s this big ugly fly working so hard to reach its goal but not getting anywhere. To me that was a pretty good lesson right there.
Working hard sure is healthy, but it won’t do you any good if you’re not smart too at the same time. Work hard and smart. If you’re not getting the results you’re looking for, take a step back and look at your plan again. You might have overlooked the open window.
Of course I couldn’t kill the fly who taught me this lesson. I finally caught it and let it fly right out the window. Then I returned to the resting guys on my painting. All the time working hard and smart.
kind regards, Gerard
The Break and other paintings will be shown at the group show 'Icons and the Common Man' at Gallery Roos van Tudor from april 23- june 5. More info soon!
