PAUSE OF THE PAINTER

August 20th, 2019

If a game of charades instantly materialized, and you had to silently represent a painter, what would be more iconic than gesturing a few feathery strokes with a grasping hand and then taking a step back to pause and ponder the current state of your imaginary painting.

That pause is perhaps the most iconic act of such an artist.

The underlying questions of such a pause?

How is it going?

What is the current state of the work?

Where should it go now?

Every pause is a crossroads, an opportunity to pivot in a better direction.

This is another iconic image.  That crossroads in the middle of nowhere.  Four paths adjoined with stop signs. 

The decision is clear: continue on the current path, or take a left or a right.

The artist pausing to contemplate the state of work is doing the exact same thing. 

Shall I continue with the current method and line of thought?

Or should another train of thought and feeling be followed off in another direction?

The artist, unlike the career-track individual is merely an individual who is more practiced with the variety and depth of questions they are capable of asking themselves.

Notice that subtle difference in image also.  The ‘career track’ vs. the Artist who contemplates the possibilities provided by a crossroads.

The distinction lie in how a crossroads emerges.

Every street is essentially a track until it hits a crossroads.

Most people are simply waiting to arrive at a crossroads where upon a decision about a new direction can be entertained.

And here in lies the crucial distinction:

Artists create crossroads by asking themselves questions.

If you are stuck in a rut, or on a bad track, the right question cleaves the path with other avenues of possibility. 

This episode references Episode 117: The Cleaver, Episode 72: Perseverance Vs. Pivot, and Episode 390: Question about the Question