Friday, May 25, 2012

Bears Den 12

B.D. 12
 oil on linen  16" x 20"

"To be an artist is not a matter of making paintings or objects at all. What we are really dealing with is our state of consciousness and the shape of our perception. The act of art is a tool for extended consciousness" 
Robert Irwin

One of the best things one learns (and constantly re-learns) when trying to make a painting, is the deciding of what is important and what is peripheral. To sharpen one's visual perception to the point of understanding what one sees without attaching names or objectifying it. This goes back to something I often repeated to my students - 'first find the poetry of what you are seeing and then choose the elements that will get you to that poetry'. One must always remind oneself to stop, don't rush in headlong, and contemplate what visual incident triggered the poetry of the moment - 
what are you in love with - then work like hell to grasp it while it is still present! 
This visual poetry is unnamable and yet absolutely necessary.