a redeeming case

"I would say to a person who thinks he wants to paint, go and look at the way a bird flies, a man walks, the sea moves. There are certain laws, certain formulae..

... It is Mathematics of the thing you have to care about -- not art. Oh yes, you have to care about the message. You don't avoid seeing the story element in anything, I suppose, but the thing you do has to exist by itself. The thing you have to care about is doing a workman's a builder's, a mathematician's job. You have to be constantly working, building up your weights and balances, so that your picture will stand inevitably, and so that the structure you're building gives you the feeling of solidity, of permanency. And all the different parts of the picture will have to be working together, and as essential parts of the picture as a whole..."

~ John Marin, from "Theories of Modern Art: A Source by Artists and Critics," by Herschel Browning Chipp.


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Sometimes, i feel like whatever i have in mind doesn't come out the same. I'm now starting to realize, it never does. And i realized once more that i shouldn't be frustrated about it because there is a certain build and destroy sequence in the middle of the start-to-finish gap. The very last image may or may not end similar with the beginning but the redeeming part is how it becomes an entirely new being.


(One rainy day down south. Photo taken during a retreat)