Having a discussion with my Art
The work doesn’t need your approval. It needs one thing to carry the weight while something else gets to breathe or even play.
Instead of asking myself, “Is this good?“ I try to stick to “How is this relating to everything else in the picture or maybe even the room?”
At this point, I’ve set the brush down, I’m no longer making anything. I’m having a discussion with my Art.
“To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul.”
Pablo Picasso
There is an energy in beginnings. There’s no way to replicate it, and really no way to revisit that feeling. The canvas is nothing but possibility and those first marks will always evoke a response. Every brushstroke holds promise. The painting is an infant and she’s beautiful.
Then we’re building on that momentum. Value relationships and structure emerge. The painting has substance and begins to take form.
There’s a destination in sight and it’s important that you get there. More pauses. Hopefully a bit more listening. Listening. It’s not a construction site. It’s a conversation.
Now you’re invested. Instead of watching, excited to see what comes next, you feel the need to steer. This isn’t power steering, it’s tight and forced. Accidents start looking intentional or at least a little contrived.
Then the disconnect. Now the ego is at the wheel and today it’s feeling self-conscious.
Instead of a bold mark, you negotiate three careful ones. You smooth and blend in order to avoid any potential accidents. You shake hands with the tension and walk it to the door. The painting becomes agreeable, and agreeable paintings are like agreeable people. They’re pleasant. Pleasantly uninspiring.
The work doesn’t need your approval. It needs one thing to carry the weight while something else gets to breathe or even play. Let it hold both the possibilities of collapse and ascension simultaneously. Energy lives in the unresolved.
Leave one thing alone today. Just sit with it. Not because you’ve given up, but because you haven’t.
What happens if you let the painting win one argument?
Where is the tension in your work that you keep smoothing over?
What might the painting be trying to tell you that you’re not ready to hear?
Paint Tuff!
Gabriel