Born With Wings: Step 18
The last step of the painting was the signature. Ever since Junior High School I have been signing my drawings and paintings with a lower case b. I have come to think of it as almost a corporate logo for myself. In my more recent, more serious pieces, I have been giving the b a theme to match the painting. I was going to try and do something a little different in 2003 by hiding the b in the background where it might have been found anyway (the hatch label in How Far We’ve Come and the steel company logo on the crane in The Anchorage). In the compositional sketch for this painting the b is shown on the fuselage of the plane, I thought as the registry number. I found while researching the plane for the painting, however, that the registry number for planes in the U.S. always begins with an N, and that it is usually found on the wings. So I fell back on my earlier tradition and painted the little b logo in the bottom left corner (the registry number on its wings is the date).
And so, I give you Born with Wings. A tribute to the freedom granted to all people, if they choose to use their minds, to go anywhere their ambition leads them; even if it is supposed to be impossible.
January 18th, 2004 at 2:30 pm
I’d just like to say, job well done. Excellent work. I’m not very knowledgeable of the artistic process, so reading through the process behind this painting was very enlightening.
Mr. Larsen’s work celebrates the best of man. This is particularly valuable during these troubled times when the rest of society is so attached to celebrating the very worst of man. I quote Thomas Jefferson:
“For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent.”