Work, Work, Work!

Work, Work, Work!

Chapter 11 of “How To Be An Artist” by top art critic Jerry Saltz has a provocative title. It just says WORK, WORK, WORK.

Later he mentions my favorite painter, Jasper Johns, quoting one of his famous statements: “One night I dreamed that I painted a large American flag, and the next morning I got up and I went out and bought the materials to begin it.”

I read this in June 2020 and Jerry’s words still ring like a great bell. Sometimes I try to run away in terror, but I have no choice but to go to my study and try to do something. The monster of the blank canvas must be killed with strokes and a spatula!

This chorus has gotten so deep in my head that from the moment I get up it is as if I heard a little voice that tells me: work, work, work!

Procrastination is one of the worst enemies of art. Procrastination can sometimes help us never do what we have to do: create, make art!