A priority is to keep up the production of new paintings as a continuum. The internal discipline of my studio practice is very much in contrast to that of my attendance at and participation in the residency. My studio practice requires an intense self-discipline and internal energy to ensure that work is actually and continuously being made, and completed. I am quite used to this, as I have built my practice up over a long time. Jonathan said in my first tutorial, to make sure I keep making paintings as my absolute priority. Indeed, to do otherwise would be unthinkable, as I would not be being true to myself.
Pictopoiesis being a point of reference which I am establishing. I remind myself that a key principle of pictopoiesis is that the painting emerges out of a notion concerning the poetic term, Negative Capability – the painting’s greatest potential resides in the blank surface. I have faced the fear of confronting a blank surface so many times that it does not daunt me at all anymore. Instead, I see the surface as the field in which the painting will be cultivated and all matters concerning its making are to be resolved in that field. I make no preliminary studies, never really have done, so the application is as direct as could be.
The painting begins from zero, zero as a concept in itself which has vast imaginative potential: the history of zero is fascinating: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/history-of-zero/
Zero began as a mathematical punctuation mark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0
Zero has many shapes, which dovetails nicely with my idea of the black dot of the beginning, at the beginning, taking up the shape of an apostrophe. A link with the literary (see Mid Point Review)
below and in the header image is represented an emerging series of images derived from a single work on paper currently in the making. I continue to document in low res photography and in high res if possible given that the flow of the painting itself is severely affected by having to break off after every passage or layer of paint. At the end of it all, there is the actual painting to show for it – and that is where the fineness really resides. I take the high res. images, whenever I can, to have the documentation for future reference. They are good enough for eventual printing and publishing as prints in themselves.
notes to self: a literary symbol representing that which is absent//That which is absent – the potential of negative capability? It all seems to be circular and cyclical//who invented zero: https://www.livescience.com/27853-who-invented-zero.html//compliing my first mini video explicating pictopoiesis//Pictopoiesis and Negative Capability
