Notes at the End of September
September challenged me to balance new work, old work, and leisure.
As the second month in the new studio, I had aims to paint relentlessly. The hot weather kept me to mostly morning hours, where I made some sparse progress on commissions from July and August.
Still, I had a lot of other work which caught my attention. Every week had either a studio appointment, an in-home consultation for a commission, or a delivery.
I sold three originals: Arizona Abstract Sunset 1, Phoenix, and Into the Unknown. I also delivered a commission for my client in North Phoenix of a landscape painting, Piestawa from the Southwest.
Every step of the process of being an artist is important work. These are all activities that I cherish; I feel immense alignment to see my work all the way to the end. It brings me joy to know that my art gets to live in two ways: once while I create it, and again while it is contemplated by my clients.
Still, top of mind is one of the key lessons I’ve learned:
The difficult part of being an artist isn’t actually the painting; it’s staying in the right headspace of attention. You can’t give yourself too many gaps. If you start to fall off the habit of painting regularly, a sense of “faking” looms over you. Your momentum is all-important.
Thus, I stayed in the habit with some new work. I always laugh that I feel a necessity of fairness and order when working on commissions; I want to work on them in-order, but I know that to work on an unrelated painting is to work on a commission, since it builds momentum for the next piece to turn out well.
I finished these two panels, plus laid a layer on an abstract piece which might be destined for the scrap pile. Perhaps I can save it from its terrible fate? (For what it’s worth, I categorize paintings in three ways: bad painting, “it’s a painting” with a shrug, and good painting.) The abstract piece doesn’t even graduate into “it’s a painting” territory.
In other news, I’ve been leaning on digital tools for planning and proposals. I find that this helps immensely for my clients, although I’m mixed on its utility for my own process. Still, I’m still finalizing sketches for four upcoming pieces— here they are in various states of fidelity.
My month felt fast and slow partially due to all of the changes in my personal life. I moved out of my apartment, and I spent a lot of time traveling. I attended a ballet produced by one of my clients, then I visited White Sands for a weekend reset, then California for a wedding.
I’ll leave you with this: one of the most gratifying changes I’ve observed in my personal life after becoming an artist is the level of awareness to basic perception that it instills. It’s a blessing and a curse; I was at the ballet, watching the dancers and I felt a visceral awe for the craft in which I hoped to simmer, but the gears were still turning! I watched on and wondered, how would I capture this? How could I paint my experience here truthfully?
Oddly, it’s both work that I can’t turn off and a sense of gratitude and faithfulness to a moment, which I like to consider simply presence. I’m hopeful that I can give and convey this to my community.
Thanks for reading!
p.s. I also just made prints of four select paintings, which you can find here!
