What a surprise - with a lot of pent up anxiety and stress and frustration, I worked on the new painting this past weekend (In between coughing up a lung and trying to look sympathetic as Rich suffered more kidney stones). I managed to get a good few hours in on Friday and Saturday night - packing up around 1am and only dozing off an hour later.
Rachel has thankfully recuperated from broncitis and I'm getting there. I think the weather is really aiding and abetting the perpetuation of illness though. It has been appallingly hot in spite of the cool mornings, and the inclination is to put the fan on which doesn't really help the already infected!
So, I had a discussion with Nan in which we spoke about internal critics. She told me the adage "you're your own worst critic" just isn't true. I agreed, since I know someone who is a much worse critic than I am. She went on to say that she never critisizes herself and I was surprised at that. I gasped, Really? I'm awful - I always look at the work and think it doesn't look professional enough. Nan yelled NOOOO!!! YOU MUST LOVE YOURSELF AND YOUR WORK BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
So, I'm to repeat vehemently: I LOVE MY PAINTINGS! I LOVE MY ART! It sort of reminds me of a tongue in cheek litho print I did when I was studying: I combined a self portrait with a picture of an artist from the 70's holding up a sign that read: I'm a Real Artist.
I've been thinking about Norman Rockwell this weekend. I was thinking about the subjects that he painted - the old fashioned virtues and neighbourliness - and how he did all that in a little studio in New York City. I wondered if he painted those subjects as a longing escapism, or whether in the midst of the violence and decay of the city he was witness to small, innocent scenes like that.
1 comment:
telling someone to love themselves and their work is all very well, however, AND A BIG HOWEVER, remember any fool can come up with a mantra, the secret is in BELIEVING IT. If you are saying it and not believing it then you are just lying to yourself (and possibly others)and we dont want that now, do we? Good Luck.
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