It seems there may be some kind of magic associated with hashtags. I don't really understand them, but I've heard, that as an artist, I need to be using them. I think I'll make a list of the hashtags I can use in my painting life. Here goes. . .
#astrokeofthebrush
I'm interested in getting away from the idea that the finished painting exists, complete, in my mind before I ever touch paint to canvas. I'd rather build up the painting, layer by layer. I want to tamp down on the anxiety of wanting the painting to be done, before I even start, and just discover it as I am applying the color stroke after stroke.
#justastrokeatatime
The painting will appear as the strokes accumulate on canvas. And like AA for alcoholics, who say sobriety is created one day at a time, paintings are built one stroke at a time. All you have is the brush, the paint and the canvas. The only way to get that paint from palette to canvas is by moving it with the brush, bit by bit. The process requires trust. Paintings sometimes (usually) look terrible at the beginning, but when the artist trusts the process and follows it, in time the painting will appear.
#thenextcanvas
Our brains are fantastic and awesome. An artist's brain involved in artmaking is constantly measuring shapes and lines, judging temperature and hue, comparing values. It happens automatically. The mistakes I make in any given painting are not about that painting. Mistakes in the current painting are the solutions in the next one. My brain is working out the problems in this painting, so the next one will be better. It happens. It's what the human brain is designed to do. So don't get precious with the paper or the canvas. It's just canvas, or paper. It's cheap. Get more.
#hopeatthetipofabrush
Every little smudge of color I place on the canvas represents a little bit of hope. I know what it feels like to lose hope, and I know what it feels like to try and get hope back. When I was a kid I used to step into the books I read and pretend to be the characters. Pretending to be Nancy Drew, or Laura Ingalls, helped me move through the sadness of my parents' divorce. Now as an adult, I also find myself stepping into my paintings. I'm not trying to tell any specific story in my paintings, but each one represents a moment in time, with the emotion of that moment attached. I want the viewer of my paintings to feel what I felt as I stood in that spot. As I paint, each stroke gives me hope - that the combined color notes will be transformed into a work of art that a collector will cherish. At the end of each painting, hope exists, urging me quietly onward to the beginning of the next one.
#paintingemotionandmood
It's mysterious how artists express emotion in paintings. It's a new experience for me to learn this way of artistic expression. When I was young I didn't have an artistic outlet. I didn't discover it until I was 39 years old. As a youngster, I didn't know what to do with all my emotion. Today, as an adult, painting gives me a beautiful way to keep my sanity in what can sometimes be a maddeningly confusing world.
#notjustadecoration
Decoration is fine. If a painting looks good over someone's sofa, then so be it. But artwork can be so much more than just decoration.
#mysquaremilesofcanvas
Most people say you have to paint miles and miles of canvas to get to mastery level. But the actual quote, by a man named Charles Webster Hawthorne, is that you will find "square miles of canvas" behind every successful artist. It's a small difference I know, but miles and miles connotes a line, as if there's no space to fill. And square miles means space, and shapes, and colors. And it is an apt description of the gessoed, cut canvas sitting on my coffee table right now, waiting for me to paint some pictures on it.
#ifyoucanreadyoucanpaint
Nobody ever says, "Oh you're such a talented reader!" Do they? No. We teach every kid in public school how to read. Every kid. Could we teach every kid how to draw? I think, yes. Does that mean every kid will be a master painter? Well, does every kid make a perfect score on reading comprehension tests in school? No. But still we teach everyone to read, to the highest level they can attain during the time they are in school. But we don't teach drawing or artistic expression to every kid. And it's sad. Art is problem solving, and we say we want students to solve problems, then we leave out an awesome way to teach them how. Also, art is a great way to work through emotional issues and trauma. Why do we block this particular path toward healing from children? It seems cruel, and it will never make sense to me.
Peace,
Judi
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