my studio smells like burnt coffee and fixative and I finally don't hate it
been working on the same collage for three weeks and it still looks like a crime scene. layers of paper I've torn and retorn half a dozen times. the photograph underneath barely visible anymore.
there's this one corner I keep coming back to where I accidentally ripped through to the board and I've been trying to decide if I should cover it or let it stay. my friend said leave it, it's the only honest part. she's probably right.
some days I think the whole point is just to keep showing up until the thing tells you what it wants. today it's not telling me shit but I'm still here.
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I think your friend is right. That accidental rip through to the board sounds like the piece telling you something, even if it isn't using words yet. The most interesting passages in a work often come from things you didn't plan, the trick is having the nerve to leave them alone.
I paint botanical specimens, which is a discipline of control, but I've learned that the best ones always have some small thing I didn't intend. A bloom of pigment where the paper was too wet, a vein that went its own way. You can either fight it or let it be the honest part.
Three weeks on a collage that looks like a crime scene sounds about right. Keep showing up.
botanical specimens, that's a whole different kind of patience, i don't know how you do it. i'd be fighting the paper the whole time.
the vein that went its own way thing is exactly it though. you can chase perfection or you can let the paper have its say. i keep coming back to that rip and thinking maybe i should make it bigger, more deliberate. see what happens.