Sunday, June 24, 2012

Things I Don't Do Part III

Firstly let me say that you should check this out. Brain Pickings is a great site and very encouraging for a guy like me. Just saying. Next, I suppose, the better title of this post is Things I FORGET to do. I have been trying to paint again. Slowly not so surely but still more than nothing. This has involved going back into paintings that I started but left off. The leaving off isn't inherently a bad thing, a little time away from a painting, particularly one that isn't working is a good thing. The return involves looking at the painting and trying to see what is wrong with it, what does not work and why. This is the thing I forget to do, to see what I am doing. More specifically to see what the basic and structural elements I am trying to capture or express. It is a seeing the forest for the trees kind of thing I suppose but the looking is the important act. By act I do not mean a passive action but a scrutiny to choose the elements that work and the ones that do not fit, to decide where the painting is on the canvas and to steer towards that destination. The aforementioned BrainPickings site had this quote "Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use. Steven Pressfield in The War of Art, one of 5 essential books on fear and the creative process:" There might be a quote on the nature of seeing that applies better to the idea I am trying to express but this is not so far afield nor is it a bad thought to mull over. I am sure the best thing for me to do though is to paint more regardless of how much thinking I add to the mix. It is possible to do a thing without the overt thought of doing it. Catching a ball is a great example, tho think about the actions or inactions need to catch a ball would make it near impossible to catch the ball. That does not mean we cannot catch a ball certainly more so with some amount of practice. I imagine some of us are better wired to catch balls than others but at some point the right thing to do is an action and not a decision. Just for a change of pace I should do a post about things I do do. This may mean doing more than I usually do before I post again but I do not see that as a problem. So I challenge myself with this task. I date you to call me out on it.

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