Day 20: Deep Thought

I was looking for something to paint. I had no idea. So I painted having no idea.

As has been expected, there would be days that I just have no idea what I’m going to paint, despite the 20 years of sketchbooks, being surrounded by people, animals and nature day in and day out … it’s almost like the universe is a cacophony of inspiration, and the function of a creative type is to be able to filter out all the noise to pick one idea.

A successful creative is the one who can filter down further from the ideas s/he picks out to only executing the good ideas.

In any case, this is from a day where I had to paint, didn’t want to go to the sketchbooks (my ego keeps telling me that would be cheating, though It’s not a rule). So there I sat at the easel, with no idea. Then it dawned on me: that is what I will paint.

I actually considered long and hard what word/picture would go inside the word balloon and then I finally decided it was better empty. That said, I’m not above selling the painting and customizing the balloon for the buyer.

Personally however, I am quite happy with it being empty. He can be thinking anything: the possibilities are endless. A word in there, in my opinion, would cheapen the work. But like I said, I’ll cheapen my work if I can make a buck. I have no problem being a sell-out. To paraphrase my hero David Cross: “The mortgage company won’t accept my artistic integrity as payment.”