A VIDA COMO PINTORA

(life as a painter)

Deciding what to paint is always such a process, especially when I haven't painted for a while.  I had done a lot of thinking and sketching in the weeks before this in preparation for when I would have a studio, but the truth is thinking and planning your artwork will never get you as far as actually DOING it will. 

My studio here in Indaiatuba, and just the start of some new paintings.

I actually just finished a book that talked about this, “Art and Fear”. It spoke about a pottery teacher who separated his class in two, explaining that half the class would be graded ONLY on the quantity of pottery made (that if you made 50 pots by the end of the semester and everyone else made less, regardless of how well the pots were done, you receive an A, simple enough) and the other half would be graded ONLY on the quality (that they need ONLY to make one pot the whole semester and would be solely graded on how well that one pot turned out.)

Stage one of painting of
corner building in Sao Paulo.

But here's the kicker, at the end of the semester who made the best pots?...the group that would be graded on quantity.  Why?  Because, simply put, practice makes perfect.  While the quality group was sitting around thinking about how to make a perfect pot, the quantity group was getting to work...and learning how to do it.  So...contrary to what philosophers might argue, thinking really doesn't get you as far as doing.  

For years I've noticed this problem in art classes.  I have seen countless numbers of my peers produce somewhat amateur work and complain that it doesn't come easy to them, or worse, spend their time worrying about whether or not they are 'talented' enough.  Which is flat out a waste of time, whether you are talented or not is essentially irrelevant.  There are many people in the world who are 'talented' and yet don't produce anything, while many people who aren't particularly 'talented' become extremely successful.  The bottom line is, if you work more and think less you will save yourself a lot of trouble.  

Stage one of painting of typical Brazilian neighborhood.

It's not complicated yet people don't do it, I dont get it.  If you want to be a better painter, paint.  If you want to be a better soccer player, play soccer, if you want to be a better scientist, practice science, if you want to be better at a language, study.  Spending your time giving credit to words like "inspiration" and "talent" only place doubt in your mind, holding you back from your potential.  

I once had some classmates actually say to me during a critique, "You don't understand because it comes easy to you."  This is what frustrates me. They are dismissing my hard work as talent, or the not so subtle underlying meaning of luck.  But again regardless of if you are talented or not, it is the hard work that makes the end result.  And I might add, everything gets easier the more you do it.  We can assume that in the pottery class there were probably talented people in both groups of quality and quantity as well as not so talented people in both groups.  But as the study proves, although talent surely plays some role in success, it is time and effort that matters more.  So of course it looks like it comes easy to me, because I have worked extremely hard for it to look that way.  

Stage one of painting of Brazilian small
town streets. 

As my high school dance teacher always said, if it looks hard to do, you aren't doing it right.  When watching ballerinas leap across a stage as if they were born to leap rather than walk, you escape into the fantasy forgetting completely about the years of training that must have gone into just that one spin or step.  Yet the second one of them falls, suddenly you are taken out of the moment and into the reality that, regardless of it's polished performance, it actually is very difficult to do. 


It's the same with painting.  Most viewers think they could paint any abstract painting, because of its simple color and shapes.  And yea anyone can mix colors and draw shapes, but not in the way a great painter can.  Just as anyone can jump on a stage in a tutu but not in the way a ballerina can.  

Back to my point, I don't know what I want my painting series in Brazil to be, but for now I’m just getting to work and will see where it takes me.  I do know, however that I don't want to paint people, at least not for now.  After my last series, I am exhausted from portraits and need to do something with more freedom.  So for now I have started painting scenery and archeticure from various cities and neighborhoods here in Brazil...I will see where to go from there when the time comes.  Maybe it will just warm me up for something else or maybe it will turn into my main direction, who knows?  But Im enjoying it, and Im working, what more is there?

Not sure what stage...of painting of poorer neighborhood in Sao Paulo.