9 x 9 acrylic, monotype, collage on Arches & other mixed medium . .

"Trois"

Our first assignment in my photography class was to take photos of what the number three represented to us. I thought about that, and this is the painting that resulted. The script is Corpus, Animus, Spiritus (Body, Mind, Spirit) and "trois" is three in French (my mother was French, and there are many artists from this French side). As I'm getting used to using acrylic and it's advantages, and exploring abstract images, I'm using watercolor paper . . . 9 x 9 . . . very small for me. Seems less "precious" than canvas or cradled wood. Although it doesn't shorten the amount of time I spend speculating as to what to add or subtract, I'm finding the small size is easier. This is the first time I have used script in a painting. Some glare that shows in this photo (I discovered this last night in my photography class) can be eliminated with a polarized filter. However, my new $500 camera doesn't take one. I would have had to have spent more money to get a camera where the lens can be changed  . . . sigh! I think I'll do an 8 part series in this color palate (greys & tans) and this size.

This is a quote from Chuck Close that I found on Tumblr. To me it says that creating is work. I'm sure most artist know that creating is work. I do have that element of "struggle" involved and coming to find some acceptance that the struggle that I experience is normal and ok is good for me to remember. I experience joy when some action on the surface works, but for me, spontenaeity is difficult. As I'm re-emerging I'm re-educating and re-practicing my eye to my own work and not others, as I've done a LOT of computer and gallery looking when I wasn't doing art. He addresses this to "young" artists. For me, I use the word (re-emerging).

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs.The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you sit around waiting to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you, and something else will occur to you, and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel you need this great idea, before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case." . . . Chuck Close

I certainly find that is the case. I just start and something pops up, either as I work, or later as I ponder it. The direction just comes.