Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Spinning my wheels

There must be some value in working and reworking the same painting over and over again until it becomes three inches thick, but I can't imagine what it is. And what it is in the artistic spirit that refuses to allow a painting to die a dignified death but keeps trying to resurrect something that wasn't working in the first place. Tomorrow I will start fresh, on a new canvas, and probably get farther in two hours than I have in a week on the first one. It is a commissioned portrait and I will finish it and it will look exactly as I visioned it. But not on this day; not on this day. It is essential for an artist to know when to give up and when to keep fighting.

Lord give me the serenity to accept what I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know when to give up and start over.

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