Jason Dunavin

I’m going to try something here that might be a novel concept: I’m going to write my opinion on the Internet. Isn’t that just what we need right now?

Every Thursday*, I am going to share my experience learning to become a painter, and how it relates to the rest of my life.

I took it up in the fall of 2022, now about two-and-a-half years ago. I decided I needed a hobby that involved making something. I am not athletic at all so that eliminated a lot of potentially completing activities. I asked my wife if she was interested in that at all and she said yes, after which we went to Michaels before a date and dropped an embarrassing sum on the supplies, as well as a subscription to Skillshare, where we took some very basic lessons. I still have some of those early lessons and I remember thinking “how do people do this?”

Something in it took hold of me. Even now I can’t really explain what happened; I only know that I’ve spent at least a little time with a brush in my hand almost every day since.

Painting isn’t my day job and likely never will be. I’m not against selling my work (which I’ve done exactly once) but you’ll see my “store” is more of a concept than an actual place of business. I’m not doing it for fortune. I post my stuff on social media like most everyone else these days. I view that as more of a conversation starter than a commercial strategy. Like a lot of painters, I just want to hear the answer to the question, “Did I make something good?” Ultimately, I suppose, our own answer is the one that matters most, but it’s nice to hear it from the world outside ourselves too.

I don’t need to make money from my art. I recognize that as a place of privilege.

However, painting is part of who I am now and will likely always be.

*: Or as often as I can manage / remember. Nothing I do “regularly” actually happens exactly regularly.