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Sunday, September 18, 2016

The Dare





This little girl kept me busy off and on all week long. The daring look in her eyes, the tangles in her hair, the way the shadow of a window pane shaped her face and chest kept pulling me back to take another look, make another pass.  Ease up on that mark, bear down in this area, get rid of that.    I'm still not sure I got down what fascinated, but I'm as close as I am going to get.  For now, I say I'll take a breath,  but I know  I won't be coming back.  

" Eureka that's it"! seldom happens with me and my art.  "The end",  "Finished", are absolutes I never reach.  Mostly, I just stop and walk away. That unfinished, unresolved state used to annoy the hell out of me.  Now, I know better:  I love starts!  I jump out of bed in the darkness of early morning to watch the sun celebrate the rise of a new day. The sunrise brings a fresh start. Sunsets, as beautiful as they are, do not.  They call time-out.  After so many marks made, paintings and drawings started, worked then set aside, I suspect  my masterpiece just might be that pristine white, blank canvas--or the next clean blank sheet of paper in the Sketchpad waiting till morning?  Unmarred and perfect, they dare me to keep going, keep trying, keep jumping up eager to catch the first rays of infinite promise.




7 comments:

  1. Start is always best moment for artist!!! Idea will come out....
    Beautiful kid portrait pops up from paper with eyes that looking at world with
    strenght. I love her...

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    1. I loved drawing her! She was hypnotic, a most pleasurable challenge. Thanks for allowing me to use your photograph.

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  2. Good to see you working, Linda - glad your surgery is done and you are recovering well. Robert Henri instructed us to "Do whatever you do intensely" - and I see that in your sketches and your paintings.

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    1. That's nice to hear! I admire Robert's prolific sketches. He sets quite an example. His paintings fascinate me too. Surrealistic, figurative, colorful, might have been what pushed me to push my boys over the top--but not quite enough. I have more to learn about intensity. Thanks Susan.

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  3. I love the look on that girl's face! Over the years I have become a morning person, I love early mornings and starts!

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  4. It was an IBM Guru that used the term 'Tar Pits'. He linked programming to poetry: when you start, the concept in your mind is exciting, when you finish you are relieved ... but ... invariably you get stuck in the middle, in the 'Tar Pits.' Many fossils are dug up of animals who got stuck in the 'Tar Pits' trying to reach the bees and honey. I think we can safely extend this concept to painting.

    Great drawing and poetic post

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