From Richard Diebenkorn’s “Notes to myself on beginning a painting”
- Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may be a valuable delusion.
- The pretty, initial position which falls short of completeness is not to be valued–except as a stimulus for further moves.
- Do search. But in order to find other then what is searched for.
- Use and respond to the initial fresh qualities but consider them absolutely expendable.
- Don’t “discover” a subject–of any kind.
- Somehow don’t be bored–but if you must, use it in action. Use its destructive potential.
- Mistakes can’t be erased, but they can move you from your present position.
- Keep thinking about Pollyanna.
- Tolerate chaos.
- Be careful only in a perverse way.
from “The Art of Richard Diebenkorn” by Jane Livingston, page 115.
Transformations: The Struggle to Create
Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it? — Frank Gehry
This is a very comforting quote for me. When I paint, I frequently have only a very vague idea or sometimes — no idea at all — of what I am searching for in the new work. I start somewhere, and often, the finished piece is so far away from where it started, it’s unrecognizable. One of my favorite things about working this way is that I discover things — such as shapes and images — that I just couldn’t invent.
The Challenge of Becoming a Non-Representational Painter
Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. – Jonathan Swift
Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. – Josef Albers
I am getting very excited about my upcoming solo show. I’m painting like mad, and I’m beginning to be very happy with some of the results. I think I may just have a future in this wonderful world of painting!
Continue reading “The Challenge of Becoming a Non-Representational Painter”
Draw Abstracted Form Merging with Landscape
Class notes, from Advanced Drawing Studio with Barbara Rossi, SAIC, 1991
“The creative process lies not in imitating, but in paralleling nature—translating the impulse received from nature into the medium of expression, thus vitalizing this medium. The picture should be alive, the statue should be alive and every work of art should be alive.”
– Hans Hoffman
Think about forms of nature that excite you: creatures, clouds, rocks, wood, trees, bones, water, fog.
Make lots of drawings of abstracted form merging with the landscape.
Hoffman’s “Search for the Real.”
The sound of machines; music.
Thorax (horse drowning in a sea of sadness).