the latest in my ongoing struggle between seemingly opposite forces. maybe it’s only a struggle for me, but sometimes when I look at my work the next day, a piece that I “got pretty spontaneous on”, some of the marks look good to me and some look just plain sloppy. don’t get me wrong, I like sloppy a whole lot more than refined, but there is a difference between, say, de Kooning sloppy and your three year old kid’s sloppy. don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of art by three year olds too. it’s just that some of my marks look like they were made with intention, by a real painter, and some of them just look like someone tripped on their way to the canvas with loaded brushes in their hands and stuck them out to break their fall.
look at a painting by Soutine. PAM has that terrific one of the young pastry chef. you talk about spontaneous marks! but there isn’t a single mark that appears accidental, you know?
I have found this to be a real tightrope walk. if I favor one over the other the painting seizes up on me. if it’s too sloppy, and the next day I try to tinker with it and bring a little refinement to it, bah! forget it. the thing will die a rapid death. but if I’m all bravado and two-fisted paint flinging, it looks like one of those paintings that elephants do with their trunks. maybe worse.
look at a painting by Soutine. PAM has that terrific one of the young pastry chef. you talk about spontaneous marks! but there isn’t a single mark that appears accidental, you know?
I have found this to be a real tightrope walk. if I favor one over the other the painting seizes up on me. if it’s too sloppy, and the next day I try to tinker with it and bring a little refinement to it, bah! forget it. the thing will die a rapid death. but if I’m all bravado and two-fisted paint flinging, it looks like one of those paintings that elephants do with their trunks. maybe worse.
john cage said in his “rules of art” that you must separate analysis from creation. I think he’s right, and to that end this struggle can not be dealt with entirely at the time the painting is under way. you can paint-stop-analyze, paint-stop-analyze, but you have to be careful not to kill the creative process. better to just paint-paint and then look at it the next day and see what you think, then paint-paint again.
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Probably left-brained painters would have a pretty easy time. The paintings might not be so great, but the artists would suffer no doubt ...
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeleteI knew from the pink cast of the canvas it was your post. Fast learner, ain't I?
I think you are right about paint-stop-analyze etc. and some days you just got over the top (and fall off the cliff). And other days, you hit the jackpot (I'm in Nevada, after all).
State parks, as a left-brained painter, I have to say, it isn't any easier. In fact, if I let that particular orientation take over, I'm in deep doo-doo. I suspect you meant that left-brained artists would suffer "less" -- but that's not true either -- I suffer just like Dave. But don't paint as well.....
you are really breaking it down right now and i can't wait to see where it all is going to end up. thanks for sharing the struggle with us. i think that you are on the brink of a breakthrough... there's that word again, hmmm.
ReplyDeletebreak of day, the edge between dark and light. exciting stuff.