I haven't posted in a while and haven't painted in a while. After the little show/arts and crafts fair I wasn't in a mood, though I've done a couple small paintings they both suck and I am not sure why I did them; just to do them, I guess, which is perfectly fine.
From time to time I read something someone has to say about painting, and I realize that thinking about painting in that way doesn't make me want to paint. I find this kind of thinking, knowing, takes my joy away. Not words, color and a surface and a question and something to see.
Why? What is painting to me that makes it different? I don't know. Writing is a more disciplined combination of inspiration and craft; teaching is craft mixed with a tincture of inspiration. Dealing with the details of life, paying bills, registering the car, dealing with taxes is craft and nothing else. I think painting is, for me the OPPOSITE end of what appears to be a continuum. Painting is craft learned through joy just as dealing with everyday annoyances is joy (relief?) acquired through craft.
