Category: Creativity

I have been doing slashes of paint on the finished painting now for 6 months. I do not know why I suddenly had the urge to start slashing but I did.
I think the first one was” Pearls.” I was sort of covering up the writing I put on the front of the painting and while I was in the middle of that I sort of kept going.
Then I became obsessed with the energy of the slashes. They seemed to make the paintings vibrate.
NOw I am in love with them and don’t want to stop.
Like all new things, there are mixed reviews.
But I have to go with what is speaking to me right now .
I have to .
NO artist has a choice.
You have to obey the leanings . If you don’t do what you think you should, you will be cranky.

I heard an interesting talk this morning on the radio. It was about why people buy things. People always always always buy because they like the way they feel about the thing they are buying. It is not a logical response. It is 100 percent emotional.
You may think you are buying something because it is a smart buy but you are not. It makes you feel something. You might feel smart, pretty, clever, thrifty, ahead of the curve, wise. or any number of things.
You buy into a belief system that you can relate to.
People showed up to hear Martin Luther King give the “I have a dream speech” not because they heard about it on the radio or television or internet(not invented yet)
The showed up not because they thought Martin Luther King was a great guy. NO they showed up because they felt good about the message and wanted to be a part of that message. They related to it on a gut level.

So what you believe is so important because that is the only thing anyone can hook on to and go with. They don’t care otherwise. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
I think that is why abstract expressionism took off like it did. Everyone wanted to be the smartest person in the room. They wanted to be sophisticated and get it. It was the newest thing and that is what they wanted.
This idea works on all levels and is very interesting to ponder.

I always thought that muscle memory was that if you worked out a long time ago and then started again, your muscles would remember and it would be easier for you.
Unfortunately that is not true. Your muscles remember by figuring out how to do something and then it uses everything efficiently so you burn less calories.
That is why you have to do new things all the time. to keep the muscle confused so it will burn energy like a furnace not a slow boat to china.
the burn is your friend.
anyway this is also true for creatives. we get good at something and then it is not challenging and the work seems stale somehow.
Its always the one that is the new level, the first one of the bunch that is the best.
then you have to do something else.
all artists do that. change up the style somewhat to keep it fresh.
too bad life is like that.
You always gotta be uncomfortable. to grow. rats!

The hardest thing for an artist is not being timid. I think it is pretty common. Most of my artist friends have the same problem. That is why galleries exist. We don’t even want to deal with it.
I think the reason is is difficult is because what we do is so close to us that is like selling a kidney. well we just have this kidney by the grace of God and asking money for it is weird.
It is like that.
When a painting turns out really really great, I am always thinking where did that come from. I don’t feel like I created it. It feels more like I was just around and it showed up. I think like that as I am painting. Where did you come from beautiful line. It paints itself.
So when someone says How much do yo want for this, it is hard to say a large number.
that is why galleries are going to exist even though we have the internet and studios .
One person removed from the experience of creation is good.

I like to paint big. When I was a little 12 year old m y parents let me paint on 4 by 8 panels in my room. I filled the room with(you guessed it) big ladies and roses. I was just remembering that. Where that came from I do not know. but since forever I have painted big.
small makes me feel crazy. I did do some small works but they are only faces. I can not draw more than a bit of a person on small.
Big means I get to do a whole body.
A big body.
I paint murals.
Once I did a set of murals downtown Tacoma that were one block long. I did people standing waiting for the bus. they were eight feet tall.
with big shoulders. Well it was the 80’s and big shoulders were in.
I would like to do a mural of a big lady over in Soap Lake looking at the new 60 foot lava lamp. I would like her to be 60 feet long. You could get you picture taken by her arm or her foot or her head but not everything or you would be like the size of a doll.
I am telling you this because size is something we are born with. some people like little exquisite and some like giant.
I have giant blood.