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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

my seat...mine, mine, mine...on resisting change

I have noticed over the years that artists sit in the same seats time and time again.....perhaps we have been conditioned from school days.  I used to be terribly annoyed at this, not understanding why these people wouldn't like to sample another point of view.  But I have come to some understanding about this.  For me, good artists whose habits are worth emulating resist formula painting at all costs.....they resist perpetually painting the same subject in the same way with the same tools.  They paint from life.  And they embrace the unknown.  Now it is a known fact that our bodies return to status again and again.  We resist inertia.  We are always searching for "the formula" that guarantees success.  It is not our fault as we have been conditioned by that thing called survival to continually measure and assess all moves.  When we find something that works, we tend to do it again and again.  And so the quest for perpetual change is a bit alien to us and causes some anxiety.  Of course, we artists know that the outcome is exhilarating and energizing, well worth the effort.  And....back to seats.  I have come to realize that we need some sort of bungee cord to stabilize us as we leap off into the creative unknown.  My seat.  The constant.  The place where I feel secure enough to be able to think novel thoughts and create novel visual arrangements.  Mine.