Sunday, February 24, 2008

ANXIETY, ART & GARLIC


Utter Chaos clay mono type 30x15

Painting is definitely not a relaxing exercise for me. In fact it is usually very stressful, especially as the painting progresses and I invest more and more myself in the work. For this reason I rarely work nonstop for more than 20-30 minutes at a time. Regardless of the medium (but more so with watercolors) I will work on a specific area of the painting and then stop, leave the table or room, work on something else, or do any number of other chores before coming back to the painting. One benefit of this practice is that it allows me to work on several projects/paintings at the same time. I suppose it might be different if I allowed myself to fail, but I want every painting to be the best it could be. So, the more it progresses, the more I worry about “messing up”. On those occasions when I work through a painting with a more nonchalant attitude the results are usually dismal.

I accept this anxiety as something positive that need not be avoided. Anxiety is to the artist what garlic is to the cook, enhancing!!


Overwrought clay mono type aprox 30x24

(the barn series will continue tomorrow)

3 comments:

jafabrit said...

these are beautiful prints. I know exactly what you mean about anxiety and having to leave work and go do something else.

timerulesmylife said...

Congrats to out latest local celebrity! Saw you on the very front page of the paper! woohoo!

Julio Rodrigues said...

I wanted to read the article, but The Paducah Sun is just for subscribers?