Preparing for Life or Living in the Moment
Somehow I’d convinced myself that I’d gotten separated from myself, from my painting from the mere fact that I’d been living and that certain aspects of living had taken my attention away from a contemplative life. Can you separate your daily practical life, that such as buying food, paying bills, cleaning the kitchen floor, tidying your cabinets, calling on friends, reading a book, working a job, filling your gas tank from your life as an artist? After all, these activities always seem to take time from what I want to do, which is being in the studio painting, or going for a walk on the Corte Madera Creek watching the patterns of light and wind on the waterways. Not only is it the act of living that seems to interrupt with the contemplation of living but also the preparing for the future that takes away from living in the moment. Then again whatever kind of artist you are, and whatever your influences, Nature, Landscape, Death, Love, the Human Condition, your bathroom, they all kick back into your psyche as fodder for what you wind up putting down as the visual depiction of your experience.