"I painted them, Doris" 1958

These little paintings, "I painted them, Doris,"—artist unknown, date unknown—were made on a tiny scale, possibly in someone’s home. Look at the way the paint is applied, so directly, like frosting on a cupcake! I love the roughness of the marks, they are so unpretentious. In the dog portrait, see how the fur is just scribbled in? And the bird's wing, just a simple swoosh? It's like the artist is saying, "Here, this is what a wing looks like," without any fuss. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the surface. There is something about the way these paintings embrace simplicity, which reminds me of Forrest Bess. Like Bess, these little paintings seem to come from a very private place, suggesting that artmaking is about something more than just skill or technique. It's about making something real, however imperfect.