When I started painting in 2012 I was 62. While I had no idea at the time why or even what I was painting (!), I knew I felt impelled to paint and right away committed on every level to go “all in”.
7 years later, here in 2019, well started in my 70th year, I have much more of a handle on what I am doing and where I am going: I paint because I love how making art allows me to commune with the deepest places within myself, places so private I didnt even know they existed! What I am painting is all about interior realities which, as it happens, relate to universal themes - joy, anxiety, discouragejent, confusion...- easily recognized by anyone open to abstraction. As for where I'm going, that's easy! I'm going onto the next adventure!
Just this past week I completed just such an advenure: a big, bright, minanalist 6' by 6' painting. Instead of stopping where I normally would, however, I decided to not just keep working on this canvas but to completely change course, ending up with a complex, dark composition, which totally suprised me. For some reason, the expression "Take no hostages!” came to mind at the time!
Thinking about it, I began to consider that if I “killed” my hostages - my cozy familarity with primary color, my habitual way of approaching each painting - maybe I could get beyond my comfort zone to greater liberty of spirit, the ultimate goal being to be fueled purely by imagination and creativity, not habit!
The result of this leave-no -hostages-behind decision is entirely new for me. As my creative energy increases I feel like the doors of my whole life and being are being blown off! My response? Bring it on!
