BEHIND THE DESIGN: PROCESS IS EVERYTHING

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The question on your lips is… 

how do you know when you are done? 

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I have heard it from so many different faces and hearts over the years,

Sometimes I think I must be wrong, but most times I don’t.

 

I try to explain.

 

I like the unfinished

The brushstroke

The scratch

The mistake

The accidental colors next door that suddenly pop

The wrong solvent that bleeds like rain

 

Photorealism in its best form is possibly boring

 

I like the push and pull of a bad brush on old canvas scratching painfully at the fabric because it cannot blend the colors like sunset, but it does when you squint your eyes.

Also the moments with thick line from my fingertip that feels so good I have no desire to clean the mess and I believe people may just remember it too like a child in a bowl of fudge.

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And of course sometimes I don’t like it.

 You can’t always be rough. So I refine bits and pieces so the whole thing doesn't become untethered. I clean and shape the shadow on the left nostril and the light behind the shoulder and that one sharp tooth that is yours exactly. I do a lot of waiting and listening and small movements too as the light pours through the old glass doors and the wind moves the shadows over my canvas.

 

So there it is - something to hold to, the way old photographs feel like a deep breath, nostalgic of course but something more, with the ink beginning to fade and the sun doing its reckoning, the will of so many things besides us and part of us upon that strip that we develop.