Sick as a Dog

For decades (yup I am that old that I can use that phrase), I have noticed that when I am sick I feel a creativity urge unleashed in me in a big way.  I have no idea why or what could possibly be the underlying reason for it.  It has periodically lead me down some roads that would not necessarily be the best choice for a sick person – painting the living room or perhaps several rooms over the years, building a new workbench and a myriad of art projects imagined and started.

Maybe it’s about being openly vulnerable and stripped back to a raw state where there is little left but to listen to the fundamental inner voice which may have been suppressed and which may be the root of the illness to begin with….who knows.

Well here I am again…sick with creativity unleashing itself all over the place.  I have held myself back from the renovation of my studio for this round because it is a BIG job and I admittedly am down a quart on energy.  Soon. 

Often I get my pump primed with some reading.  Art books of course.  I have been reading David Choe again.  I first saw his work in Juxtaposition, a great magazine (and art book publisher – check out their special book on nature) that I pick up periodically.  His work covers a range of the palatable for me personally.  Some of it I really turn away from (and he would like that) but some I cannot get enough of.  His layering, characterizations, compositions and palette I go over again and again.  I read something he wrote about his approach that caused me to run down a new road and new train of thought.  He was describing how he pulls out all these materials and sketches and layers paint and scratches and sketches and layers again.  He says you have to just try it all and be prepared to let it be destroyed and let it go, let it go.

LIGHT BULB ATTITUDINAL MOMENT.

So here I am just letting it fly with layers, and materials, and sketching, and paint, and ink, and more layers, and the final step which is to cover the whole thing with dark oil paint and then start to rub away parts of it.  And be prepared to destroy it and let go. But I don’t need to…it’s working…..

My assistant has been following me closely all day.  
I have explained to her that I have Kennel Cough
​which she understands fully.