Dead or Alive

I often talk about drawings or paintings working or not working. What makes one collection of pencil lines or paint strokes successful and another not? Everyone has their own criteria. For me it is very simple. A work of art is either dead or alive. Of course there are gradations but ultimately it is that simple. This quick gesture study is as alive as any drawing I've ever done.

Female Nude, oil pastel, 5" X 4", 2011

Here is a self portrait from 1987. It isn't the best likeness but it still speaks to me even after 27 years.

Self-Portrait, ball point pen, 9" X 8", 1987

I have quite a few unfinished paintings tucked away around the studio. Many have been there for years existing in some form of suspended animation waiting to be resurrected. When I hold a mirror to them there is still evidence of a faint breath. I'm afraid it's time to admit that nearly all of them are in irreversible comas and aren't going to make it. Every now and then I try to jolt one alive like Frankenstein's monster but my success rate is close to nil.