Apr 17th 2014
I made this painting in class on Monday evening. My teacher, Lisa Creed, sensed that I have been floundering. Not able to find a new direction, and pretty uninspired by the work I was producing. Even though some of it is quite nice, I think. So she talked me through the steps that led to this painting: etching through wet paint (i do that quite often) but then adding colors I dislike and more layers on top of that. Hmm. What do I want to say here, really? I want to say. Here is this painting. It represents a breakthrough, a new direction. I read once that anything worth doing is worth doing six times. So I am going to follow the same steps a few more times, with variations, and I am going to write about the process and show what the painting looks like along the way. I just finished reading Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work!, which is the inspiration for this decision. I am nervous. But I have been reading a lot about failure lately, the value of public failure, so I think I will go for it. I have no idea how often I will paint, how often I will post. That is one of the things I am exploring–how often do I actually want to paint? We’ll see.