Philosophy

Painting…and why we do it

I feel that painting is a very personal thing. How we do it, what we do with it, when we do it, what we do it with, what we do it of…We often worship it, bemoan it, love it, agonize for hours doing it…WHY! How often do you ask your self this question. Why? Why we do it changes, we think…or maybe why we do it is easy to answer for some of you. There is something about this creative process that keeps bringing us back to IT! A passion…a question that needs to be answered…that special feeling we get when doing it…the camaraderie of others involved in this similar journey.

Personally I don’t know why each of you paints. All I know is why I paint…I think… “Why I paint” …hmmmmm…well sometimes I think I know why I paint.  I think! You know something, come to think of it…When I begin to think I know why I paint, my paintings seem to stagnate and loose their vitality…to get mundane. At which point I begin to question again… “What am I doing?” The answer is usually “I don’t know.” And the search begins anew…the paintings regain their vitality…the journey is new and fresh. The subject matter changes, the colors change, the sizes vary, the paints vacillate from oil to acrylic to mixed media and back to oil again. Abstract, realism, landscape, figure! Wow. Now that’s exciting. As long as the journey is exciting, the excitement shows in my art. I may not know it at the time…but the struggle of the unknown, the uneasy has pushed my creative juices and although I may feel lost (which usually I am), I am searching. I am trying new things. I am engaged. I am alive. And hopefully my Art is alive. I think that’s all we, as artist can ask for. To be alive in all we do, which eventually comes out in our Art! What others think, if we sell, if we show and win awards…doesn’t matter. Yes these feel good. But those feelings are short lived; only little splattering of temporary good feelings that dissolve like sugar in a hot cup of tea.

So I encourage you to Paint! Have courage…don’t be too comfortable where you are…experiment…splash……scrape…blend…draw…paint…sculpt…Don’t fear the unknown…Embrace it…Be Challenged by it…But most of all Enjoy every minute of it!