silence.

julie mehretu--stadia II

another reason why art is indispensable to my happiness is because when i am making it, i am still.
i am not a very talented artist. but i love painting because my mind turns off. there are no thoughts clouding my head. only silence. and i have found that this is the only place that that is so.
these experiences are almost sacred. i think we all have things that speak to us in special ways. this is mine. and i feel very close to God with splats of india ink on my fingers.
i'd forgotten. i haven't painted for months. i'd forgotten about the stillness. but i am in a studio tech class this semester. on wednesday nights, i sit in a light-filled room in the hfac and i draw with ink or paint with fresco or make prints or plaster sculptures. and it feels so good.


life is not what is said, but the process of saying, not the created picture, but the creating.
gerhard richter.


and that's why the time i spend painting a bad picture is worth it.
and, you know, that's also why the time spent living and making mistakes is also worth it.
it's the process.

if there's one, resounding lesson i've been taught since i've been at school, it's to act. to live. and to have no fear.

i'm still working on it. but i'm improving.