Long ago, I noticed while painting in a cold sun room in the wintertime that my hands were not noticeably cold. Every time I stopped and put my focus on something other than creating, I felt the cold ripping at my fingertips and my joints slow to move. Again, I would engage the painting by just thinking “one more color, one more contrast”, “it needs a little more blue or green there” which took my mind from the cold. This would go on for hours. I would lose track of time and my cold hand’s discomfort while forming a concentrated direction in making the artwork. The environment and its freezing temperature were not really that important. I was locked in to making. I was in the zone of carefree creation.
The carefree attitude is an important road to experimentation in medium, form, symbolism, and aesthetic. Once one gets hung up on detail, design, and thinking that the work of art should look like the thought that inspired it is a crude one-dimensional direction that would not allow room for fresh inspiration and new creative directions. Just like any tree, animal, or person, the artwork MUST grow. IT EVOLVES in the making. And it should evolve!
Careless, to me, is going strong and wrong. Strong is staying firm in a direction of thought. Wrong is when my strength inhibits me from growth and new ideas. I have one thought, get locked into it and try to protect it (even though it may not be working out). I believe this is a saddened adult behavior. Meaning, the fear of change. Kids don’t have this. Children move to the groove and flow with their desires. I would rather have many open opportunities than one closed view.
