I have just been offered another solo show. It will be my fourth this year and I have said yes.
Solo – alone! Yup, that is true! Me, my paints and my animals. But somehow when I am working I am not alone. Painting definitely bridges the gap between here and there and keeps me present moment present tense aware and in the flow. And so I work. No point being addicted to worrying about the future. Best just enjoy the journey as I have no idea where I am going, but it is probably to the studio!
Filling four galleries, plus organising a group exhibition and doing an open studio event has made me think of the expression ‘rising to the challenge’, as I crawl into bed for an hour with my computer before going out to teach an Alexander Technique group class this evening! Rising?Perhaps a bit of sinking for now!
Alexander Technique – Forward and Up! FUP! Why not rise to the challenge? FUP It!
Life wouldn’t present the opportunity if I couldn’t do it surely! So just show up and paint. Let the challenge rise me!
The breath breathes itself, we can consciously control it, but we don’t have to think about our every breath. My breath breathes me, why should the art not paint itself? Flowing like the breath onto the canvas. If I get out of my own way enough something interesting happens and the strange thing is that the more present I am to allowing painting, the more other people can recognise an undefinable but palpable quality. It sounds pretentious I know. But the reverse is also true, we can worry the paint to becoming an ugly muddy mess.
Allow painting, allow breathing, allow flow, allow solo … or resist – think the work is not good enough, that there is not enough time, hold the breath, lose trust, worry about lonliness …
Choices …
Do I live life or does life live me?
Solo! So High!
Can’t wait to start painting again tomorrow …