Gritty Art, Art in the Rough

"Sun Flower" 24" x 18" acrylic on stretched canvas, by A Dawn Every Day Artist

I could paint prettier and more realistically.

I keep rebelling against it though.

Something at my core rebels against it.

I like gritty stories, gritty poems, gritty art. Not entirely beautiful, idyllic, pretty. There is something more interesting and appealing to me in the rough.

I like a little graffiti in the sky, in the water, on the petal on a flower, or on somebody’s cheek. I paint that in. I don’t airbrush it out of my creativity.

I feel drawn to it.

When I walk the beach, there is always plastic trash poking out of the water.

When I take a bike ride, fast food containers and beer cans are always caught in the vines and bushes.

The sky and day are beautiful, and then I hear the full throttle of a truck with a busted muffler. Life is still beautiful, even with the tattered ripped torn pieces. Maybe in spite of it. Maybe because it.

Life is gritty, in the rough.

I feel like that is reflected in my art.