People kindly keep inviting me to speak to their group or class. I would rather staple my fingers to the wall than to speak in public, so I wrote about it here.
The Process
Pay attention. Keep my antenna up. Read peculiar things, take notes along the way in several sketchbooks and on my phone. Read poetry and swoon over the distilled intensity. Envy writers and poets. Misremember song lyrics that become painting titles. Listen to podcasts and read books and magazines, grazing along whatever piques my curiosity. Pay special attention to the weird, the funny, and the beautiful. Admire regional accents and folkways. Garden lazily, just enough to grow hardy flowers that thrive on neglect and cause amazement. Gawk at hummingbirds and lizards and butterflies. Enter the studio with a head full of imagery and stories and no particular outcome in mind.
Work intently on one painting and slowly fall in love with describing allll the details until so much of it is wet that to proceed will result in certain smudging and crashing the image. Sadly turn away from this love affair to turn toward another.
Move to another, dry painting. PLENTY TO CHOOSE FROM. LIKE A MILLION. Seriously, you should see my studio.
Or start a new one. I’m the boss of me.
Become engaged in another painting and fall in love all over again until I drag my wrist through some wet part of it and curse, loudly, startling the dog. Apologize to the dog and play a while. Whisper my thanks that I use acrylic, and can paint over any mistakes or simply change my mind as I paint, “You only thought you were a dog … Poof, you’re a goat now.”
Repeat, repeat, repeat, ALWAYS with an eye toward upcoming shows, commissions, overdue barters, looming deadlines, and surprise projects.
#ObsessiveMarkMaking
#WhatIfIDidntHaveACreativeOutletOMG
#WorkInProgress
#ItsMyMedicine
#ShortAttentionSpanTheater
#UnusedCreativityIsNotBenign
