This one has a story. First of all, I don’t do rustic. It’s not my style. Distressed things just look like splinters and tetanus to me.  I like polish, shine, and glitter. 

I bought a used guitar from a woman on Facebook marketplace.  As I drove to get it I thought about the different ways I could paint it with  interesting colors, glossing it with resin, and transforming it into a shiny piece of art for my growing musician-inspired collection. I had so many ideas, but I instantly changed my mind when I saw it. It had no strings, was dusty and had been stripped bare of any varnish, color or finish. I don’t even know what brand it is.  All of that had already been sanded away. It has a story, but I will never know the songs it played or the fingers that coaxed out melodies. It already had a life, but was in the process of being refined when I finally found it.  It sounds silly, but I related to this guitar instantly. 

I love when musicians strip grandiose ballads and anthems down to an acoustic version. The more dramatic the change from the studio recording to acoustic, the more a song piques my interest. The lyrics and melody remain basically the same, but in removing all the extra instrumentation or changing the tempo, a song is still recognizable, but is monumentally different.  I’m living in the acoustic version of my life: Simplified-Smoothed out-Missing a little polish (possibly)-The same but dramatically different.

With this piece, I wanted the rawness and lack of color of the old guitar juxtaposed with the vibrant colors flowing out of it.  I also wanted a dark background so the lighter and brighter colors spilled forth and pushed the darkness out. The color pours out.  Beauty pours out.