Some thoughts on art....

As I am getting ready for my upcoming exhibition, the necessity to provide some information on my artistic approach forced me to take stock and gather my thoughts on what being an artist represents for me. Although I have an appreciation for all kinds of art and artistic processes from traditional to contemporary, I seem to be zeroing in on this somewhat narrow (distorted?) view of the artist and his art (I used masculine just for the sake of simplification):

• The artist roams the world excited and, at times, tormented by what comes across; at loss with words, paint, by default, seems to be the only thing that allows him to communicate effectively about his own (schizophrenic at times!) experience of the world
• The artist approaches the white canvas nervously as if getting ready for combat; the first brush strokes are used to demonstrate who is in charge in the face of emptiness (confronting the white sheet syndrome can be scary!)
• The artist paints in his mind more than on canvas; when he commits to the canvas, it is an outpour, as if relieving the creative tension that has accumulated thus far; in the end, he forgot which colors or tools he used as they became almost secondary to the creative process; moreover, fairly frequently, he feels as if he – himself – were a mere instrument of creation as opposed to the one who created (scary stuff!)
• The artist initiates each stroke with the power to displace a mountain (love those Zen painters!); this rule applies even when painting delicate flower petals (up to a point!)
• It the artist works in separate layers, every layer is a complete painting; in due time, he will stop at the first layer…when he is ready to “release to a higher order” (or by pure laziness!)
• The artist, at times, curses at the demons when confronted with the challenges of representation…after all he is only human (John Singer Sargent used to do that anyway!)
• The artist does not go to his studio every day, as he considers it as a sanctuary to be visited only when the mind is ready; if he did, it would be a job (he paints in his mind more than in the studio anyway!)
• The artist paints the way he sees as opposed to what he sees: lines persist while colors drag into one another (Raoul Dufy!) and scenes are experienced to the tune of one different vanishing point every nanosecond (David Hockney!); when painting something, he paints it wrong so that the viewer sees it right (pure Velasquez!)
• The artist does not copy what he sees but rather interprets his subject using the natural laws that govern its very essence; at the apex of his art, he creates parallel worlds that seem more believable, more real than the real world (somewhat presumptuous, I grant you that!)
• If the artist, at times, seems to be riding too much on the coat tail of virtuosity and bravura, there is always that healthy dose of self-doubt and uncertainty about his own art that pushes him to the next painting in constant search for some unreachable truth
  
• As the artist matures, economy of motion and economy of means are more and more reflected in his work; the viewer is left to complete the painting thus becoming an artist as well; when his paintings don’t look the same from one viewing to the other, it is time for the artist to charge more for his art (it depends, it can still be one brick short of a full load!)
• The artist's work is best appreciated from a distance as a close up may reveal organized chaos (and too much emotions!); some viewers suggest backing off to Cleveland to better appreciate his work (well, you can’t win them all!)
• The artist’s last painting is a one stroke painting that yields as much satisfaction as a full blown painting; he appears to have mastered the brush stroke at last (wasn’t it the only purpose of the exercise after all!)

This is far from the way I paint or approach painting right now so, needless to say, it is with a certain degree of apprehension that I consider the above as a blueprint for my future art! In the end though, one thing is for sure, I can't take myself too seriously! The whole thing does not need to evolve beyond the sheer joy I derive from painting and creating on a daily basis.