The Business of Editing Art – When It Ends Up on the Cutting Room Floor

You’ve likely heard the phrase “the cutting room floor.” It comes from the early days of filmmaking, when footage was physically shot on film and editors would literally cut unwanted frames from the reel. Those discarded snippets, sometimes entire scenes, would fall to the floor beneath the editing table, later swept into a bin at the end of the day. While rooted in film history, the phrase has grown to describe anything removed from a final product, and the thoughtful, sometimes difficult, process of deciding what stays and what goes.

In painting, editing takes on its own form. After creating a series of works, or even within the development of a single commissioned piece, there comes a moment of selection. It’s the quiet but essential task of choosing the strongest pieces, the ones that create a cohesive story, a sense of flow, or a clear direction for an exhibition. With commissions, it becomes the process of exploring and refining ideas, then presenting the options that best align with a client’s vision.

Recently, I was commissioned by The Tragically Hip to create a winter-themed image for their Strictly Limited poster series. The brief was to produce an original painting that would later be photographed and reproduced as prints. With a few concepts swirling in my mind, I decided to paint two different versions and let the band choose the one they felt resonated most with the project.

Now that the prints are complete and the commission wrapped, I’m left with the painting that wasn’t selected. And as often happens in the creative process, what doesn’t make the final cut still has its own story, and sometimes its own moment to shine. With its warm, festive mood, I chose to give this painting a new purpose as the image for my holiday cards this year.

So while painters don’t have a literal cutting room floor, we do have pieces that don’t end up where originally intended. The beauty is that these works – often strong, meaningful pieces in their own right – can still find their place in the world. And in this case, while the image is spreading holiday cheer through cards, the original painting itself is available for purchase.