Head First

Yesterday, I cut the new panels for thirty new paintings, and today I sanded and gessoed them. There’s a lovely mindlessness about this part of the process (hand in hand with mindfulness). I’m more excited about making these (Symbol Signs/Portal Paintings/Insert Other Working Title Here) than I would have imagined three months ago. I was then keen to believe that the Work I need to be fully invested in was the black and white work; there was confidence in this belief. But, as Emerson said,

“Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.”

These 11″x9″ mixed media paintings are little voyages, and I have no idea where they are going. They are quite the opposite of the big Work. Considering this project gets me excited again about painting, as I had found myself lacking energy for the other… Not that I wasn’t inspired to do it, I just repeatedly found myself not really working on those paintings. Maybe, I wasn’t lacking energy for it, I was simply getting beat by Resistance. I go with the flow, as inflexible as I may sometimes be… a living, breathing contradiction.