I've been a painter for forty five years, with some breaks. Even if I am not satisfied, or feel a painting is successful, there is something rewarding, something energizing about doing it. It's nice to have an idea or an inspiration that keeps images coming forth, but it's not as important to be considering a body of work or a gallery show, or even that a great painting must be made, and that is something of a relief. And it can ease things up for true engagement and enjoyment.
Discovering, playing, applying, making textures, my images can be of different styles. Color and paint alone is fascinating. I believe that color and texture carry emotion and that being open to what moves through me brings something to an image. I remember going to a counseling center and seeing a young persons work on the wall that made me look at it every time. There was a mastery to the drawing and the coloring that was inspiring and beautiful, not a typical childlike rendering, abstract, that showed the intent and abandon to expression that allows for magical things to happen with color, that's what I think I found beautiful in it.
I might have thought that somewhere along the way I had lost something of that energy , but seeing that piece took me beyond that, or I went away with the idea that maybe I could get it back, or find it again, uncover. Most of the time when I see good paintings I get inspired, and it feeds me somehow, and in that way I feel like a painter again.
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