many people believe that “making art” is the physical act of sitting down (or standing up) and making something with your body.
the process of “making a painting” does not begin when you first put the paintbrush onto the paper / canvas. it doesn’t even begin when you start setting up your paints / your brushes / your easel / your whatever it is you’re using. it begins much much earlier than that.
as an artist / as a painter, you have to decide what to paint, as well as how to paint it. this seems obvious when said out loud but i find it surprising how little attention is placed onto the process of the “what” task in pretty much all art.
you’ll have NO TROUBLE finding resources and help and learning and community around the “how” of painting. but you’ll struggle to find anything for the “what”:
how do you decide “what” to paint?
how do you know when you’ve found something worth painting?
are these the right framings of these questions? (no they’re not)
over time, i think I’m understanding this blindspot better. it fills in more blanks about my frustrations with people’s obsessions of technique over anything else. it shows me why i feel like something’s missing.
the truth is, good(!) art starts way earlier than you can even imagine. finding out “what” to paint isn’t something you can force. it’s not an activity you can sit down to do. it’s more about creating the conditions in your life / in that moment to allow inspiration to come to you on its own. it’s about making sure you’re in a scenario where that might happen (but you can never be sure - it’s chance based). it’s also about making sure you’ll listen to it when it comes knocking.
but one paragraph can’t do it justice. i won’t join the tradition of subjecting this practice to an afterthought. know that there is more: know that: to make art, you need to change your life. there’s no way round it.
back to the wikiblogardenite