I have embarked on a new project, and uncharacteristically, it is a kind of collaboration. While we were on our blissful rafting trip down the John Day river a month ago, our friend Jesse Lichtenstein, a writer and poet, asked if I would be interested in collaborating, sharing his poems and my paintings and seeing [...]
Posts Tagged ‘anne truitt’
Poetry Project
Posted in Thinking Things Through, tagged anne truitt, doubt, poetry project, searching for a way forward on August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A Side-Benefit of Procrastination
Posted in Thinking Things Through, tagged anne truitt, failure, fear, happiness on June 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I understand the blessing of laughter better than I used to, having — I hope — outlasted some of the portentous solemnity to which, when I am tired or frightened or insecure, I am sadly prone. A light heart has more virtue than romantic agony.
— Anne Truitt
It is easy to be heavy: hard to be [...]
Asymptotes
Posted in Thinking Things Through, Work in Progress, tagged "Indirection", anne truitt, finishing on January 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Some years ago I worked out a nice little metaphor for the path a painting follows toward completion: an asymptote, a curving line that forever approaches tangent with the x or y axis but never gets there. The concept of the asymptote is perhaps the only fragment that remains from my career in high school [...]
Self-Discipline
Posted in Life, In & Out of the Studio, tagged anne truitt, discipline, don delillo, Studio on January 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been thinking recently about discipline, about the number of hours I spend in the studio, and how much work I get done there – or don’t. I had always the notion that I was a pretty hard worker, but I’ve come to think that I’ve slacked off a fair bit since I got married. [...]
Apropos of Finishing
Posted in Thinking Things Through, tagged anne truitt, finishing on January 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I mentioned in an earlier post that I am reading the journals of the sculptor Anne Truitt. This morning I re-read a passage from Daybook which touches so directly on the difficulties of finishing a piece of work that I had to post it, given that my last post dealt with my own struggle in [...]
New Year’s Resolution: Pay Attention
Posted in Life, In & Out of the Studio, Thinking Things Through, tagged anne truitt, meditation on January 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
For some twenty years now I have begun each day with a period of quiet. During this time I experience a state of mind in which I am to a degree detached from my daily life. I like this feeling, and it occurs to me that I have even begun to prefer it. If a [...]
