When the economy fails, like it has now, I think the arts take the hardest hit. Real Estate and banking caused this disaster, but the results for them amount to a lesser need for real estate personnel and bank activities. There are still people getting married who need a place to live, and banks still do a brisk business in credit cards and household loans. The result for the arts is a total shut down. It's as if the world is saying that we don't need anything connected with the arts at all: not artworks, galleries, museums, or services of designers. The rest of society slows down; the arts disappear.
Here's to those who struggle. They were always my favorite companions, anyway.
PW
Friday, January 29, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
January 25, 2010
It's been a long time, and I'm sorry about that; but I have been busy, and I want to talk about it.
Long time ago, I read that a mother has to "fall in love" with her newborn. There comes a defining moment following delivery when a mother's heart fills with love and happiness at the sight of her baby, when she knows that this little scrap of humanity is truly hers and she's glad.
I think something similar must happen to an artist laboring over a canvas. Sooner or later, I must literally fall in love with the thing, must rejoice in its look, must recognize its turning out the way I'd been hoping after all that time of wondering and doubt.
The monsters look good to me (no matter how they might appear to anyone else at this point--that's not important). I haven't ruined them, nor am I flopping around not knowing what to try next. They make me smile on the inside. It's a good day!
PW
Long time ago, I read that a mother has to "fall in love" with her newborn. There comes a defining moment following delivery when a mother's heart fills with love and happiness at the sight of her baby, when she knows that this little scrap of humanity is truly hers and she's glad.
I think something similar must happen to an artist laboring over a canvas. Sooner or later, I must literally fall in love with the thing, must rejoice in its look, must recognize its turning out the way I'd been hoping after all that time of wondering and doubt.
The monsters look good to me (no matter how they might appear to anyone else at this point--that's not important). I haven't ruined them, nor am I flopping around not knowing what to try next. They make me smile on the inside. It's a good day!
PW
Friday, January 8, 2010
January 8, 2010
I'm thinking there may be more than one way that characterizes one's working style. You hear of a particular method as describing one's typical way of working. But maybe there is more than one.
I know I must make the colossal mess somewhere down the line, ordinarily. But sometimes it doesn't go that way: I'll find myself confronting a simple success. Perhaps I conceptualized the process so exactly (at the threshhold of sleep)--or the materials behaved as I expected them to, or better--that the result was satisfactory. The little gem on the table right now is a case in point.
What this implies is that I'll be soldiering on with the two monsters against the wall for the rest of my life.
PW
I know I must make the colossal mess somewhere down the line, ordinarily. But sometimes it doesn't go that way: I'll find myself confronting a simple success. Perhaps I conceptualized the process so exactly (at the threshhold of sleep)--or the materials behaved as I expected them to, or better--that the result was satisfactory. The little gem on the table right now is a case in point.
What this implies is that I'll be soldiering on with the two monsters against the wall for the rest of my life.
PW
Sunday, January 3, 2010
January 3, 2010
That's the first time I've written "2010." Seems impossible.
Sorry to have been so long getting back. We arrived home on the 28th, and the past week has been full of laundry, thank you notes, and lovely memories.
There is a time when good ideas seem to come in. It's that hazy, dark, quiet phase between wakefulness and sleep when I find myself visualizing the construction of a new painting. Oddly, I either find myself drifting into this, or I can make it happen. It's a very easy time and takes no mental discipline to create like dropping into a trance. (I tried that years ago and realized, sadly, that I'd never develop the skill because it takes too much commitment. I have enough grief just getting my exercise in.)
This is when the gods speak to us, and the message is always novel, fresh, and compelling. I wish the Main God were this personable and clever and easy to find. I'd even go back to church if It were.
PW
Sorry to have been so long getting back. We arrived home on the 28th, and the past week has been full of laundry, thank you notes, and lovely memories.
There is a time when good ideas seem to come in. It's that hazy, dark, quiet phase between wakefulness and sleep when I find myself visualizing the construction of a new painting. Oddly, I either find myself drifting into this, or I can make it happen. It's a very easy time and takes no mental discipline to create like dropping into a trance. (I tried that years ago and realized, sadly, that I'd never develop the skill because it takes too much commitment. I have enough grief just getting my exercise in.)
This is when the gods speak to us, and the message is always novel, fresh, and compelling. I wish the Main God were this personable and clever and easy to find. I'd even go back to church if It were.
PW
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