When Experimenting Becomes Routine-Don't be Precious with your art (Patreon)

In this video I walk through my steps and thought process of painting "Mind Body Problem." This might be the longest I've ever spent on a painting. I started in November 2022. I walk through the process and the kinds of mental blocks that were holding me back and how I ended up getting through them. 

I started by pushing Saran Wrap into wet paint on canvas to give me those delicious textures. I then started defining the texture with a gray scale underpainting followed by thin layers of color.

I had done this process before and had success with it. On top the that, the textures on this piece looked so good that I really believed this piece would be a painless beautiful success. 

But for some reason on this one I started spinning my wheels. 

Because I had success with this process, I was too invested in its. Being an artist involves a lot of uncertainty and instability. So when we find something that works its natural to cling on to it. But that ultimately will hold you down because it stops the process of necessary searching that pushes creativity forward.

The result was literally and figuratively a flat painting. The image itself lacked depth. And the process of painting it lacked energy, rhythm, and engagement. I was just chasing stability. chasing a template. Trying to hold on to something that wasn't mine.

So very late in the process, I made some bold strokes and started destroying a lot of the little textures that I had spent so much time on. Just to create some interesting movement, rhythms and shapes. To give myself some problems to solve. 

It can be hard to make yourself do something like that to something you've been working on for so much time. But I think it can be an absolute necessity when you're spinning your wheels and going nowhere with a piece of art.