painting day...

i'm taking a little break to eat strawberries and look at the work of other artists- refresh my eyes a bit so that i can see what's really going on, not merely my intentions, not what i want to be going on. it's a tough thing to move beyond your wishes for a painting sometimes and see where you've side-stepped the opportunity/necessity of risk.

trust.
intelligence.
faith.
patience.
and also a bit of rowdiness.

i have to be willing to fuck up the canvas, turn it to total shit. if i'm not willing to do that, i know i'm holding back, become too focused on the end result not the path, not the learning, not the love, not the need. i've become too precious about the work i've done thus far, not the work i've yet to do. it is a struggle. a good one. a person learns a lot from ruining a work and then finding a way to come back from that- to yank the image out of the cesspool you've created and polish it again, make it golden again.

it's a painting day.