|
|
| Insight and Inspiration for Your Artistic Career |
'Incubator' |
|
Dear Artist,
My
friend Joe Blodgett has a painting on his secondary easel that's been
there for three months. "I'm
sitting on it," he says. Joe
is a mature artist. He
generally knows what he's doing. He
and I have often talked about the relationship between painting and
writing. He likes Jack
Kerouac: "And this is the way a novel gets written: in ignorance,
fear, sorrow, madness, and a kind of psychotic happiness as an incubator
for the wonders being born."
It's "psychotic happiness as incubator" that interests
both of us.
Incubation
is the business of anticipating surprise.
Sure, there's calculation in trying this and that in the studio of
the mind--better pattern, more light, tone down, subtraction, injection.
But there's also the matter of letting the thing hatch naturally. Sometimes
the solution just simply appears. "Sometimes the egg has been shaken
and there's no hope," says Joe.
By that he means too many early sins that are difficult to
erase--too much unpleasant history in the piece.
We both agree on three major boo-boos--a too hasty beginning, lazy
passages, and poor overall conception.
I'm
looking out the window of his studio.
There's a late evening light on the dry hills. It's the last week of summer.
In the orchard, peaches and apricots are falling. I'm
thinking that it's all a great privilege.
You live with your own art, never giving up, going through the
cycles, going quietly nuts with chronic personal optimism, waiting for
something to happen. "Conception,
gestation, labor, delivery--not always easy," I say, using the
metaphor at hand. We start
giving each other our two-bits worth on finding desire. Then
Joe leaps to his feet and grabs his painting.
"Get out," he says, "I've got it."
Best regards,
Robert
| PS |
The best kind of writing, and the biggest thrill in writing, is to
suddenly read a line from your typewriter that you didn't know was in
you." (Larry L. King)
|
| |
|
|
Cette lettre ainsi que de plus anciennes se trouvent en francais sur le site
www.painterskeys.com/fr/.
Write the author
The Painter's Keys - SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES
To Subscribe send mail to:
subscribe@saraphina.com
with only 'subscribe robert genn' in the subject line or visit:
http://painterskeys.com/rgwl_email.htm
To Unsubscribe send mail to:
unsubscribe@saraphina.com
with only 'unsubscribe robert genn' in the subject line.
If you know of someone whom you feel might get value from this email please forward it to
them. Thank you.
© Copyright 2001 Robert Genn. The 'Robert Genn Weekly Letter' may only be redistributed in its
unedited form. Written permission from the author must be obtained to reprint or cite the
information contained within this newsletter.
|
|
|
|
|
