Convergence, Jackson Pollock, 1952
When
I start a painting, I want to lay down a great base to work from but when I
finish a painting, I want to recognize the perfect moment when I should walk
away from the canvas. It is similar to a love affair – in the beginning; you
are on your perfect behavior, trying to create a great impression for your lover.
As the affair starts to lose steam, you still remember when everything was a
beautiful event making it difficult to recognize the moment to say enough and
walk away. You don’t want to destroy the gorgeous memories you have already
made with one bad memory of the end. Beautiful beginnings leading to graceful
endings are the ideal.
The
start and the finish are the big moments in life and in art – everything else
is just getting to or from one of those points. The ability to see these two
moments is what separates the experienced artist from the student. Looking at
the Jackson Pollock painting above, you have to ask yourself how he knew when to
stop. How did he know when he had the perfect amount of paint on the canvas?
Yet some artists never see an ending - Claude Monet was rumored to travel to
museums with a small paint set in his coat and when visiting one of his paintings, he
would pull out the set and touch up his work. I suppose you could call that a
series of revised small endings.
There
is energy in life and art imitates it through process. Embarking upon the
journey starts with the first step (to paraphrase the famous Chinese proverb.) Ending
the journey requires either knowing where you are headed or at the very least,
recognizing it when you arrive.
So
here is to the journey, which starts with the energetic and hopeful first step
but ends with an elegant final step and a look backward to view the progress
that was made.
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