Disappointment

You can’t put too much stock in disappointment if you look at the big picture. Sure, things did not work out as planned, but who is to say that that is not the  best thing.

Once, we sold a house and the buyer moved in before it closed.  My husband was in California buying a franchise for a new business because we had all this money from the sale of a house.  The real estate agent said it was a done deal. But in the last hour of the last day, the buyer backed out. The sale on the buyer’s other house fell through, the one they were selling to buy ours, and she no longer could get the house. End of contract.

It was very scary as my husband did the same thing to the franchise seller, too. He had to pull out the last day. So, we had no job and no sale and we did not know what to do. We were pretty much banking on all this going through. Somehow we muddled through.

A year later my husband met a man who did buy the franchise he was going to buy. And it was even in our home town.  The poor man was failing miserably and was basicially losing his shirt as the housing market was starting to plummet. We were so grateful that the sale of our house failed or that would have been us.

You can’t see down the road, A series of events might look bad but in the end be fortunate. You just never know.

one thing

Just because one person makes a negative comment about your work does not mean it is bad work. Someone else might love it. One person does not have that much power.

If 50 people say the same thing you might consider what they say. Still, if you believe deep down that some work you have done is good and everyone else says no, you might have to do it anyway.

I was studying a Matisse painting yesterday. It was one he did in 1904. Everything was flat. the table and walls were on the same plane. zero perspective. Yet it is a delightful wonderful painting that everyone treasures now. I can only imagine what it must have been like in 1904 when he did the painting. First he surrounded himself with fellow artists.  That was smart. Artists are mostly encouraging. plus we are starved for something new all the time so they were probably adoring his boldness. But it could have gone another way, with everyone up in arms about his work.

So, there will be times when you will question yourself. It is a terrible job to be an artist and have to think about all these things. Much easier to learn to be a plumber and call it a day. A thing is right or wrong. It works or it doesn’t.

One of my paintings that I sort of questioned at first and not everyone loved was this one. Now I am glad I did not paint over it. Someone did buy it and they love it now , but for a year or so I was considering giving it the ax.

Painting and Writing

You can’t paint and write at the same time. You can barely draw and talk at the same time.
I have a friend that is a teacher. and she teaches art. she has to draw and paint and point all at the same time.
that is sort of like breathing air and swimming. you have to hold you breath to swim. water is so hard to breath in.
painting is like swimming. you have to hold your breath and words and that whole side of your brain.
so If I had students to teach. I would work in silence. they would work in silence. they have to hear the voice and they cannot hear their own special voice with someone elses voice talking over it.
I do not believe in teaching art. I believe in doing art and letting the chips fall where they will..
I just read a book called”You cannot teach art”. My goodness I totally agree.
This was written by a guy who had a masters in art. He talked of the absurdity of the critique sessions.
With no boundaries who can judge anything.
He said only a very very very small percent of art school students go on the make a living as an artist.
those few that do, would have anyway.
Matisse was better and better the further he got from schooling.
I would teach a class on being an artist though. that is what this blog is about.
This blog is about the invisible thing that you cannot make happen but it does and who knows where it comes from and it is surprising even to the artist. I look at my old paintings and wonder who painted them. I have no idea. the just got born/ How in the world in the world do you TEACH that which is a gift. How do you even talk about it.
this blog is all over the place and is poorly written but then I am writing about what is impossible to translate so you can see my issue.

Anything

I like to think about  this for a few minutes every day. What if I could do anything in the world. What would I do?
If you could do anything anything anything what is the first thing you would do.
the funny thing is laying a beach somewhere would get old pretty fast. Relaxing things are only fun if you have earned them. Tired and spent?? then lay down is fun but only them.
People that go into retirement go kind of crazy if they don’t have any passions. Not just hobbies but passions.
So artists are lucky . We never outgrow our passions. We never are too old.
It is like breathing. The next breath is the most important. The next painting. the next challenge.
All you poets out there know that you are only as good as your current poem. Even if you did a million poems already, so what. What is the next one.
I would like to lay on a beach where it is warm but only for a day then get back to work.
That is the joy of living.

Faces

I love to paint  womens’ faces. And I also love to see other artists paintings of  womens’ faces. I love Modigliani , Mary Cassat, Renoir, Mattisse, of course but there are modern ones too. I will explore them with you at a later date, but right now I just want to mention why I love paintings them so.
A face is the first thing we experience in life. we look into our mothers face. And a face is probably the last thing we see too.
We look at ourselves in the mirror all the time/ How does our face look. We present our best face to the world. Our ees are windows to our souls. well what is more compelling than that.
probably nothing. everything else is supporting material. All the buildings and cars and trains, and space ships and landscapes and everything everything everything is supporting material for a face and what is behind that face.
How can I not paint faces forever when they are so important.

error: Please do not copy.