People often ask me about my work methods, how I get the paint to do certain things. I just smile and admit that I really have no idea. I start off with a plan every time and I try to follow it, but just as Picasso says “then it becomes something else.”
For many years I fought this phenomenon. But it always happened. The thing is, I usually ended up with a painting that I liked, but I was somehow not proud of it. I guess because it had not turned out as I had originally intended. For me that felt like failure. How could I call what I had talent if I was not completely in control of it. But then as time went by and I looked at the body of my work I realized that I had developed a style and more importantly, I loved it. I found my voice. But truthfully I would have never developed my own style if the “something else” hadn’t continued to happen.
I guess making plans in painting and in life is pointless on some level. My life got so much easier as a painter and as a person when I began to embrace the fact that nothing was ever going to go exactly as intended. Don’t get me wrong, to this day I can’t begin a painting if I don’t have a plan in my head. It’s just that now am not troubled if the end result has little to do with that plan. The same is true in life. I think it is a pretty good idea to have a path – set some goals. But the end results will be much more about how you are able to recognize the opportunities that came your way and not overlooking something beautiful just because it was not exactly what you were planning on. That’s where the magic happens.
Think how boring your life would be if you only ever got what you expected. Remember this, any plan that you can make is always going to have limits, but that “something else” could be anything.
Yesterday I heard a middle aged woman talking about how much better life was when she was a child. She kept talking about how she admired a certain politician whose platform was all about trying to make America the way it used to be. And I thought to myself, “I wouldn’t vote for him, he’s wasting his time.”
There is nothing I love more than walking into my studio when I have a fresh new canvas and all my brushes are clean and arranged neatly in rows on my work table. At least I think I would love that ??? Unfortunately, I have never been what you would call a “tidy” person.
When I paint I use anything that I can grab. I use every brush in the place and often times have six or seven palettes covered with paint spread on my work table. People often ask if they can visit my studio and when I say no they think that I am being a mysterious artist. But the truth is… I’m just embarrassed by the mess.