In May of 2007 I exhibited the results of a year of painting. A year of painting and planning and photographing and writing about my work. Feelings of postpartum depression and lethargy have dogged me since then. More than two months have passed and, now mid-summer, I am finally able to return to my studio with a fresh eye and a determination to work. Until this time I have been overcome with inertia. And I am not alone.
Many artists become hyper-energetic during the frenzied preparations to mount a show. It is the afterwards that is problematic. When the work is hung and the studio is emptied of this latest grouping, questions have room to expand into the empty space. Why am I doing this? What am I doing? What will I paint next? Milton Resnick, a major abstract expressionist painter and teacher said it well. Artists, he said, “….have their ups and downs….for a while everything you do is wonderful or you think it is then you slide down….pulling yourself up again is the most important part of your life.”
For me, it has been a process of returning to basics. I have started a number of paintings, and drawings. I have been talking to other artists and reading about other artists and I have been looking at my own work. I am surprised at the helpfulness of the internet in this regard. My website provides a chance to have an overview of what I’ve done recently, what continues to look fresh and exciting and where I’d like to go. This exhibit without walls allows me to look at my work objectively as often as I’d like. The show may be over but the work continues.
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