Painting by Matthew Ritchie
"The Living Will"
2004
Oil and marker on canvas
88 x 99 inches

An idea that bears repeating - aim for a compelling, unorthodox originality...

Class notes from Reinventing Your Creative Process with Andrew Long, Fall 2007

I am so going to miss these classes with Andrew Long.  He said this would be a life-altering experience, and as grand a claim as that may sound, he wasn't kidding.

My work changed fairly dramatically after taking the first version of this class with him last spring.  I started aiming again for complete abstraction (often my first love when viewing art) -- just playing in the studio, and following the brush where it led.  I was experiencing a real joy in painting - not that I haven't usually over the past decade or more, but now I was giving myself permission to explore with a new kind of freedom.  Some of the paintings I did in the past 6 months or so have been more successful than others, and I do really love them.

But when presented with questions like, "why are you painting what you're painting?"  "Are you saying something?"  "What's the difference between this painting and wallpaper or a tablecloth or whatever?" -- I had to take a step back, take a good hard look, try to evaluate my own work without that proud attachment of "I did this" achievement. It's been a very painful week of soul-searching.

I have no idea if I'm ever going to be a painter who does more than pretty paintings to decorate your living room walls with.  But, my concerns are deeper than that, my interests are broad and varied -- I hope I can finally find a way to incorporate all my visual interests with the less visual topics that fascinate me into a cohesive body of work -- my own world of interests, coming together in a beautiful visual language or world of my own.  Why not mix abstraction, representation, diagramming, mapping, and all visual forms of communication on the same canvas?

Give me 6 months, a year, maybe two -- or perhaps more -- and let's see if I can really re-invent myself this time into a painter that bears paying attention to.

Painting by Julia Mehretu
“Excerpt (Riot)”
2003
ink and acrylic on canvas
32 x 54”

Class notes from Reinventing Your Creative Process with Andrew Long, Fall 2007

Tara Donovan
Untitled, 2003 (Detail)
Styrofoam Cups, Hot Glue
6'(H) x 20'(W) x 19' 2"(D)
Ace Gallery New York

(this from the ACE Gallery - one of my favorite online presences of an already extraordinarily good bricks-and-mortar gallery).

Think of painting from another viewpoint; from up above, from inside.  What's outside?  Think of things from all directions, paint it from one direction, then another and another, put then all together, leave the history of the object.

When things cross, perhaps they're laying on a fulcrum?

Use both primary and secondary material.