"Art is the elimination of the unnecessary." Picasso
I just walked into the studio tonight, Sept 11th, with a mild Austin heat already causing me to sweat upon entering. An hour prior to the perspiration I was creating a playlist on Spotify, as I always do (no always on Spotify), creating a play list to paint to that is. This late evening holds the sounds of The Helio Sequence, Rogue Wave, Pinback, El Ten Eleven, Faded Paper Figures, Say Hi To Your Mom, Boy & Bear, and We Are Augustines. Of course I took a few self-portrait pics and studio shots for instagram posts at some point tonight or tomorrow morning and now I am encompassed by paint, string, canvas, brushes, pallet knives, paint rags, pictures of Andy Warhol and Jean Michel basquiat (that hang in my studio), a show flyer for William Catling from 9-30-1997 that always inspires and encourages me while I create. William Catling was a professor of mine who had been a major inspiration to myself as an artist and aspiring to be one.
What lies ahead for tonight I do not know. I have three pieces to finish, two on wood and one on canvas. My color pallet for the last few weeks has consistently been addicted to gold, blue's, grey, black, white and a mild pink. I can not seem to escape what these colors seem to be doing to me in a mentally arousing mix of hues. I have moved forward from my stencil work that has brought me mild success over the last few years and felt led to take a few risks entering back into abstract forms, strokes and flow. Leaving all things figurative behind. I have felt the urge or the need to move this way for the last year, but with success in one style comes fear and a lack of change. I truly belive that as an artist in any medium if you do not take risks you will never grow as an artist. I also believe this to be true about life, but that is another story, for another blog, another conversation. Tonight I paint. "A Good artist has less time than ideas. " Martin Kippenberger