"Sages" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 9" x 9"
$150
Challenge Day 6: Trust In "Not Knowing"
It seems a bit ironic to title a painting "Sages" and then to blog about "not knowing." But, that is how I operate when I start a painting. I do "not know" what I will find at the end of the painting journey. And even when I start out with the idea that I'm going to paint a certain something, I often end up with something altogether different. Today I had planned - I should say "hoped" - to paint something joyful and full of color - and I ended up with a monochromatic image of two mysterious figures with a spiral behind them. I didn't know that was what I really wanted to say until I started to see it - then I knew what the painting was about. I use "not knowing" to get to "knowing."
Here are the images of my "Start" and my "All The World's A Stage" mid process painting.
Even as I tried to accept it as "finished" I knew the painting with the 3 figures wasn't right. I felt the pull to obliterate it and find the real painting as well as the pull in the opposite direction - to resist the risk of obliteration and to preserve what was there. Ever been caught in that tension?
I felt I had to go for something more authentic. I sprayed a paper towel with rubbing alcohol and scrubbed.
The search for wisdom is a constant. Perhaps the figures I identify as "Sages" are a metaphor - a representation of an old notion knocking around in my head that there are "keepers of the knowledge" - that there are "those who know" - and the path to them is tricky, risky, and full of false starts.
Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThank you! :-)
DeleteMy painting for Day 7 took so many left turns, that I felt like I had run a marathon when it was completed! But, usually these paintings turn out to be our best. Love this one lots, Jim!!!
ReplyDeleteHa! I agree. Isn't it an amazing process. And your painting for Day 7 is one of my all time favorites. I could write a paper about it, I like it so much. My first exclamation is "How do you DO that?" but then of course I KNOW how you do it, technically, sort of. Maybe the real question/exclamation is "How do you KNOW how to SEE that?"
DeleteI love how you have no fear... you take that unexpected turn and let it lead you! Thanks for sharing your process and mind path Jim!
ReplyDeleteBut I do have fear, Sheila. All the time. I have to work at recognizing it and not giving into it. Sometimes I actually write "be brave" "fortitude" and things like that right into the paper. One of my little rituals. I'm so glad that you enjoy reading about the process. I write about it in part because I learn from writing. It is an added bonus when someone else reads it and gets something out of it.
Delete