What Artists Do...or What WAS My State of Mind When I Painted This Pastel?

What WAS my state of mind
 when I painted this pastel?

Hi-

It's one of those mornings when my mind is wandering, and I’m not exactly sure what this artist’s blog will contain today.

I’m only guessing that other artists feel this way, that is, not exactly sure what their next painting, artwork, or even the day, will contain.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that’s perfectly normal. Why not?

In fact, I would go so far as to say that artists are likely to be more uncertain, more unsure, more doubtful, even more confused than the rest of the merely human general population.

How can I make this statement? Have you ever known any artists? Let me count the ways. I know one artist who said, when discussing a third artist, "Oh, he's even more manic-depressive than I am."

Now, that's an endorsement!

We constantly, either consciously or sub-consciously, seek ideas, vignettes, settings, colors, etcetera, for our next works of art. That, I contend, is what sets us apart from others. Yes, we are different, in that respect anyway.

Of course, there are those artists who are organized, very business-like, with their online day planners and  timeframes for painting, applying to shows and galleries, and marketing activities all neatly and precisely arranged in order. They, of course, have a regularly updated e-mail list in which to keep their "collectors" and others (such as me, I guess) informed of their very important activities. I'm on some of those e-mail lists.

I am not like that and do not do that, and you probably are not like that and do not do that either. (I'm doing good just to get my painting done AND have this blog going at the same time, believe me.)

Anyway, I digress.

We wander around both physically and mentally. We search. We conjure. We wonder. We contemplate.

We evaluate. We over-compensate.

We apply. We render. We paint. We sketch. We draw. We shape. We sculpt. We fret. We re-do.

We are insecure.

However, in spite of all that or maybe because of all that, we look and we are able to see.

And, in two or three dimensions, we render our viewpoint of the world around us.

Until next blog…