War With Art

In Part 2 of our conversation with painter Eric J. Drummond, the focus shifts from discipline and craft to something harder: the tension between the work and the world around it.We get into what it actually means to spend months on a single painting and how that patience is something Eric had to grow into, not something he started with. From there, the conversation moves into the realities of commissioned work: negotiating with clients, balancing truth with expectation, and knowing when a piece is finished versus when it simply has to be delivered.Eric shares the three core questions behind every portrait: how you see yourself, how others see you, and how you want to be seen. And how those tensions shape the final work.From there, things widen out:The trap of “exposure” and paying to be seenWhy social media often works against the kind of art he’s trying to makeDrawing a line between promotion and becoming an “influencer”Finding ways to stay honest in how you present your workThe conversation also explores ho