Month: March 2010

Sometimes paintings can be the simplest thing. A few quick lines and a color wash. There is a temptation to overdo it and it is gone. The beauty of the painting is gone in a second  if you over think it.

This happened  last week. I was working in the studio and this painting happened and it was done and I thought I better work harder than that to make it worth more.

Worth more. Just because I spend 5 hours on a pair of lips does not make it worth more. If I agonize for days over the design, it does not make it worth more.

If it comes out fast that is ok. It is a blessing. Its done. go on.

Nobody cares how long you worked on something, I don’t care, Nobody cares. All anyone cares about is- Do they love it.

Let me tell you about this painting . I got the face and I loved the face. I saw this cat thing in the background that was totally accidental but there it was, and it made it even better. I also loved the color that just happened too. So I put it aside because we are talking I spent 10 minutes on the painting and I sell that size painting at the gallery for $1000.

I put it aside to live with it awhile. I took a look at again and decided yes it is done. I could wreck it in a minute by trying to make it better. It’s done and yes it took me 10 minutes but it took me 57 years to be alive to get to that point. So it is worth $1000.

Martha Graham said “Discipline is freedom.” That may be fine and good for a dancer but an other artists dont have to worry about that. They are free spirits.

Yeah right.

No artist is a free spirit. They are totally moved, not by a whim, but a drive that is overpoweringly demanding.

You must do what you do when you are an artist. At all costs.  That is just the way it is. If you can not do it then you aren’t really an artist.  Disciplines are called disciplines because it is so true.

Commitment must be total or forget it. Don’t bother wasting your time spinning your wheels. The more you can discipline yourself in every area will absolutely effect your work. That is why I am going to organize my house. I am not able to tell you where everything is immediately; therefore this is what I need to overcome. I know it will help my output if everything is organized and put away so I can focus on what I need to.

Few birds look as glorious as the peacock. What an outrageously beautiful animal. It is not necessary for them to be so but what a delight it is to see them.

That made me think about living. Living life like a peacock would benefit everyone . Extravagantly generous , spending  out every ounce of life you have been given. I do know people that live this way and they are a major gift to everyone who comes into contact with them. Just being my them gives you strength and hope and ideas and courage.

Everyone has something wonderful and unique to give everybody else.  It is sort of a state of mind. What can I give not how am I going to get what I need mentality. Just changing perspective for a few minutes make you realize  a whole new world out there that is your oyster. You are the pearl.

The significance of the blue butterfly in my latest painting goes back a long way.

When I was a young painter I always wanted to paint things that were what I wanted life to be like. I was not concerned with what I saw so much as what I did  see with my eyes but  what I saw with my heart.

I love those dreams and visions that come from another world. A world without boundaries or limits of what you can do.

The older I get the more I love these things not because  I am not appreciative of reality , but because I know all reality was once an idea. The diaphanous place where all concrete things start.  That is what I like to think about all the time. That is what the blue butterfly is to me. If you have ever seen a blue butterfly in nature then you were surprised I am sure . It almost is shocking to see one. A lovely surprise and wonder and beauty. Flitting by you on a breeze. Like an idea. A wonderful idea.

French Botanicals