Beginning Yet Again, Studio Set up

Beginning where I am. That is the essential thing, just to start where you are and do what you can do, every day, day in, day out. Today I am tweaking my work space so I can do detail work again. I really struggled over the past several days to adjust my easel so I could handle the angle of the brush in my hand, the proximity of myself to the painting on the easel and the tilt of my back and something just wasn't working well.  And my back was telling me so also! Not good! Most of those ergonomic variables are usually not a problem, especially for many broader and not so broad brush strokes and expressive techniques. So I jury rigged an old table top drafting board to the top of an old microwave cart and now I can hunker down and get to it. I can also manage to use a Plexiglas bridge with this setup; further steadying my hand when it most needs it and keeping it out of the wet paint.

FYI - The paintings you see on the board may confuse you - they are framed! And yes, they are works in progress. I had bought a picture that was all in one with the frame, which I then gessoed over. It was a cute tourist picture of the Eiffel Tower (something that I wouldn't have painted over today given what is going on in the world) and voila! Instant picture. You do need to be vigilant not to get paint on the frame, but I haven't had too many problems in that area.

No Rope 2017

I finally made the move to go “no rope” and gave notice at my “day job”. Phew! Done! And I feel exhilarated. A little explanation may be in order. “No rope” is a reference to a Batman movie, “Dark Knight Rises” and is an incredibly important concept, day jobs and financial responsibilities aside, as it is all about focus, risk taking and being “all in” in whatever venture we are up to. So often we back off or lean, all to heavily, on supports, of which I'm sure I will have many during this journey.

Below, I have cut, pasted and edited (to make it appropriate to this point in time) an excerpt from my original “No Rope” blog post from 2012 where I wove in the need for supports, as it was an Olympic year, and worried about the affect that market pressures can have on the creative process.

Edited excerpt:

“I am thinking about two disparate things in regards to my work which are actually connected in an odd way, the movie “Dark Knight Rises” and the Olympic games. So how are Batman and Olympic athletes similar? It's about effort and trying, support and no supports, and the subtle ways they can play out in the mind. In Dark Knight, the hero of the story is trying to escape a particular prison which is a deep pit of filth and ignominy, recessed many, many stories deep into the ground. Food is lowered to them via a rope. The “guests” are not there of their own free will, but they may escape by climbing up the insides of this very deep pit. There is a a safety rope that is tethered around the waist and if our would be escapee falls, the rope catches him, keeping him from crashing into the ground and killing himself. He has support people on the ground and a mentor, people who care, counsel, feed and encourage him. Our hero tries again and again, always failing at one particular large gap in the wall which he just can't seem to make it across. Finally he goes it without the rope, and only then does he succeed. Sometimes to succeed you must really feel the need in a desperate, deep part of yourself to make that extra no-room-for error effort to leap across the chasm and finally make it to freedom.

Of course, this is real life, and the role of supports cannot be underestimated and they play an enormous role in preparing us all for whatever course our future holds for us. Olympic athletes receive intense training, coaching and funding that make it possible for them to get to where they want to be, but when push comes to shove, that final push is their own effort and they succeed or fail alone in the arena. There is no rope holding you on that balance beam. You're on your own.”

For me, as an artist, no rope means that I am more focused and motivated on where I want to go. I have to write those letters, go to those openings, research those galleries, and make those all important contacts. And I have more energy to do it, because I am not quite as distracted by the 10,000 things. I used to be concerned about whether market forces would sully the creative process, but more and more I am motivated to delve deeper into the things that I feel really passionate about and bring them forward into the world. There is an expression, actually many, about dying with your dreams inside you, or your song, or your gifts, or something and that your path is the expression of that thing you have locked inside. I have spent much time doing other things, things that were a valuable part of my process, without which I couldn't have gotten where I am, but now is the time. I'm ready.