Art lessons

Painting is TOUGH. I experience so many critical moments that end in "F*CK!"—total frustration. But at those rare moments of complete flow—when the work works  and everything seems to click and move in unity—my heart sings.

It is managing these arbitrary events that makes a painter an artist. When does one push ahead? When does one stop? When does one take distance? It's curious how our minds trick us. Some days, I'll look at a painting and wonder why I stopped there. I can't see the harmony in it that once was evident to me. Similarly, I think to how I have assigned inspiration to something that was purely coincidental, or worse, mistaken or misinterpreted.

What exactly is inspiration?

Image by Louise Sturges, shown in Group Show 38 of the Humble Arts Foundation.

At the end of a long painting session, my back hurts and my brain is exhausted. I want nothing but to lie in a hot bath and stare at the tiles. When I paint, I am reminded how stupid I can be, how much can be wrong, how chance can be more instrumental than skill or intention, how insignificant or life-changing a tiny mark can be, how beauty can be captured in the smallest things.

In short, when I paint, I feel humbled.