I was more than pleased to read this entry over at Studio of Ashes late last week. Painting is dearest of all to my heart so its good to hear something intelligent and yet personal being uttered. You know something for adults? Anyway, beyond my general concurrence that painting is a mirror to the maker -it seems to me that you can't hide from what you can't do. Well, that seems to be too craft-centric a comment, though not intended to be. Let me re-phrase, it seems to me that painting is always present tense. Unlike photography which is a superimposition of reality and the past, painting is the now. Its who you are at that moment of making - a long, slow layered legacy of now(s). Always additive and subtractive yet constantly evolvong into now. You will always know what baggage you have brought to the 'easel'. You will be reminded of whether you are seeing clearly or not. Painting is a lateral move by nature, and as Ashes points out, the intelligence that is employed is not simply a singular intelligence, but stratified, incorporating the emotive, a "felt sense". That doesn't mean rigor and discipline are ousted, they are central of course - this isn't therapy. But there is something to the non -rational but comprehensive intelligence of feeling that's what is potentially so radical for the art of painting during this general decline of civil society and global democracy. For me, the best paintings don't scream, they stare through your heart with simplicity and grace. Good painting is about time, its about the strange beauty of discovery and the dedication of the pupil to that discovery. Its personhood, not a snapshot.
Image: Frederic Church
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