Starting to paint after arriving at the studio is a challenge – it takes time to leave all the ordinary life activities at the door and clear my mind. It demands faith in the positive nature of visual creation, its validity in the face of horrendous world problems.
I have to let the “thinking ideas” that I constantly come up with stay in the background of my mind. Ideas interrupt because they intrigue me, but once the real concentration of painting activity gets established, then it’s painting, period. The sectional work that used rows of “writing” lines turned into a landscape when I began to draw.
The mind’s activity is essential in keeping the original vision as clear and constant as possible, impervious to unending distractions. But it’s the activity of painting itself that leads me to the intuitive decisions that lead to resemblances of joy with my work!