36"x48"
Acrylic on Canvas
 
Luis Bloom
 
The ideation of this painting was, is and will be to encourage the viewer. Bloom showcases each step of his learning process throughout his painting career in this piece. The piece symbolizes the beginning of a journey and how we learn/improve as we commit ourselves to it. Encouraging the viewer to start anywhere and teaching them that committing to it will allow them to become better.
 
With a black background Bloom seeks to highlight this piece step by step starting with the background “BG”. “When I started to paint, the first thing I learned were the brushes. I believe in any craft you can be bound by the tools you use.” The black background of this piece was put on with a thin coating of paint to leave the strokes of brush to the viewer, to show how Bloom taught himself to spread paint on large canvases using an X shaped stroke pattern.
 
The abstract face placed in the middle of the painting is used to identify the struggle and frustration with ourselves during a learning process. “I was always told that if I mess up, to paint over it. But I always wanted to paint without error, I just want to be that good!”
 
Finally the woman in blue placed at the top of the painting is a sign of growth and completion. Bloom wanted the owner of the piece to have their own journey and when they felt good aboutu their progress to flip the painting upside-down. Using the phrase “Put that frown upside-down” capturing the Flower (yourself) in bloom and allowing yourself a smile to be happy about how far you’ve come.