The Joy of Slogging

Fallen, 2015

Sometimes the act of creating is effortless and pure joy and sometimes it's a slog through the mud. It seems to me that those slogs are a necessary part of the process and help you appreciate the moments of flow. The past several months haven't necessarily been a slog but more of a time to experiment and let my art lead me where it needs to go. 

I started a series of industrial paintings based on the corrugated metal buildings near my studio and stopped after the first painting. I also began a series of abstracted rice silo paintings and finished two and a half of them. The reason is that I couldn't get another theme out of my mind: the crepe myrtles in front of my house. When I look at these gnarly trees, I envision fingers and limbs reaching toward the sky, calling out for me to paint them. And once I started, work seemed to be less of a slog.

As I was finishing the painting shown here, I turned it on its side to finish some details and then sat on my couch to rest for a moment. When I looked up, I realized that it was it was finished, thanks to this new orientation.

I will get back to those two other series' in a while!