We now enter the door of a new year. This holiday was much easier to take than last year. I actually enjoyed much of it, although sadness often comes on those dark snowy days as I am still struggling with aloneness. I finished a painting today that looks something like the crazy work I did when I was in school. When I painted with little thought to markets, buyers, and "prettiness". I watched a film on Patti Smith several nights ago, and I was struck by her lack of vanity, her total commitment to her art, her courage. I think that real genius largely consists of, not only talent and hard work, but bravery. Permission to be gutsy in the face of a disapproving public can only be granted by oneself, but I often think it would be hugely helpful to be in an environment that was friendlier to experimentation and pushing boundaries. The Pendleton has become a building of tricked out galleries filled with safe art, pretty pictures, and poor painters who constantly look over their shoulder at what the market is buying. Very little courage here-although it does exist, in spite of the atmosphere.
New Year's resolutions? Maybe it should be just to paint from the inside out.
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