Studio journal 2/21/17

I’ve always approached painting as a process of carving away and revealing, the way I imagine a sculptor approaches sculpting.  Not modeling but carving.  I bring this up because this unfinished painting, Sub Rosa, is a pretty good example of my approach.  

There are many ways to talk about painting, of course.  I used to talk about time a lot–dancing in time and suchlike.  It occurred to me one day that I could remove all time references from my discussions about art making and it would make absolutely no difference.  

Because of my interest in time, I used to put huge stock in spontaneity; it was an important aspect of the way I thought about art making.  But what does spontaneity mean?  Spontaneous compared to what?  A lot of bad contemporary art are attacks on straw men standing in for the ‘what.’ 

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