4×4, oil on canvas (can you help me think of a title?”)
Respect the run, Coach Bennett says. Is it going to be 100 degrees? Run before sun up or after sunset. Is your day crazy? Don’t plan for 20 miles.
Respect the art practice. Am I feeling burned out? Don’t plan something entirely new or large or stressful. Are the kids off of school for a holiday and my spouse not off of work? Practice before they wake up or let them know that from 9 to noon, I cannot be bothered (unless there’s blood and there almost never is). Hire a sitter. Respecting the art practice means planning for it, honoring it, not putting it last and then wondering why it didn’t happen or wasn’t fulfilling. Bennett says when you respect the run you respect the runner. Later, in a different guided run, he expands it to, “Love the run; love the runner.” I think he’s right and the translation holds. Respecting the art practice is a form of respect and love for the artist. It’s amazing to me what happened when I started respecting myself by carving out time for my art, treating it like it was a real thing– important, live-giving, mandatory.
As we approach halfway, I’m feeling a little burned out. I struggled to carve out the time I needed. Things came up, like they always do. So I worked on the smallest of paintings and continued a series I’ve been working on instead of starting a new one. No palette knives this time. Pure brush.
Below is the second stanza in a poem by John Ciardi called “Bird Watching” from the Anthology Bright Wings, which combines poems about birds with paintings by David Allen Sibley. It’s a book I turn to time and time again. Especially when burnout visits.
“I, certainly, do not know all that comes to us
at times. A bird is a bird as long as it is
there. Then it is a miracle our crumbs and
sunflower seeds caught and let go. Is there
a book to look through for the identity
of a miracle? No bird that is there is
miracle enough. Every bird that has been is
entirely one. And if some miracles are rarer
than others, every incredible bird has crumbs
and seeds in common with every other. Let there
be bread and seed in time: all else will follow.”
I think this is my favorite of the series so far! Maybe because of the balancing on the square space you painted on. And how her lips are puckered in a kiss while her eyes are hidden in the leaves. There’s a bit playfulness to it.
Also, I am right there with you on the getting burned out. Honestly I thought I was going to run out of ideas by now!
Thanks, Greg! I’m so behind on your blog but the photographs have been amazing. I’ve got another wedding tonight but I’m planning to get all caught up. I’m eager to hear your thoughts on the images I’ve been seeing.