There is no one, absolutely no one, who is above failure and that is no different in the arts. Just as Mookie Betts goes 0 for 5 in the occasional game, a painter produces a dog here and there…in fact, it’s more often than not that the work doesn’t stand up to expectations. The basement archives of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are filled with examples. A clumsy figure study by Degas, a boring still-life by Renoir, they are all there, only held onto because of historical and academic value.

The trick is to learn from the bad apples and try to avoid them in future projects. Lately I seem to have produced many, many simply bad paintings and drawings. I won’t even show them to my cat. But, I will take photos of them for my archive (far less impressive than The Met’s) and then trash them or save them for the springtime rite of studio cleansing and toss them in the sacrificial pyre.