Step by step

I have written elsewhere about my admiration for Frank Gehry. In the documentary by Sydney Pollack, it opens with drawings (sqiggles) by Mr. Gehry, while Frank in the underlying audio track says "You think starting is hard? You bet it is."

So, I poke and prod my students but "frank" truth, I have the same reluctance to place that first stroke on that white canvas. So, the Saturday before last, I took out the stuff: the l'huille d'lin (linseed oil) and colored oil paints, and my bigger brushes and I started.

Swash, splash, and slob it on, I did not care ...it was just a free flow of fat, wet, loose paint on a big surface (1.9 x 1.3 M = 75 x 51") and there is just so much of it, it just did not seem to matter if I made any mistake; it would be recovered in the main.

The truth be known, I could not resist and at the same time I had no idea what I was doing, just using everything I know and everything I don't.

I got to "step 1" and stopped.

Then "step 2"

and tonight after a four day rest "step 3".


I am sure that tomorrow I will regret some of my spastic work, but I will remember that it is just "goo" on a "surface"





Tom (return to website)