Thank You Sharmon Davidson

My block has ended. Thanks to Sharmon Davidson of True Adventures of An Art Addict, I "pushed through" my time out and Fall fell into place in June. It sure was overdue. The painting was plaguing me. Brought me to a halt. Reading Sharmon's interview on Shawn Daniell's blog ArtSeen ,where she told of her own struggles with blocks pulled me out of my doldrums and took me down to the studio where Fall has sat for months to confront unfinished business.

My systematic process--start a painting, finish it, start and finish another, one by one--may be too rigid? But I like to finish one before I start another. I do not want to end up with a lot of not-quite-right canvases staring at me, frustrating me, from the observation ledge. Trouble is: I'm not always sure when a painting is finished. I get to a point where I've gone as far as I can and think well it's done. Then two days later, I'll notice something not quite right and pick up the brush again. With every mark made, I get either closer to satisfied or farther away. There's always a risk of not doing enough or overdoing.

Fall never had a false finish. It never got close to where I wanted it to be. So I stopped painting. and the more I didn't paint, the more I didn't want to. (Creative blocks do have a tendency to overwhelm, kill enthusiasm and totally spoil a person's fun). Sharmon's "pushing through" somehow challenged the fighter in me and sent me down to face that painting straight on. I'm very grateful I stumbled into that interview. I'm very grateful that interview was read at a time I had had enough of some meaningless object me affecting my life. "You're nothing but a pack of cards!" said Alice. And the over bearing Queen collapsed with the proclamation.