A little maxim that gives me comfort comes from Alexander Giroux, “Repetition is not duplication”.

In most of my drawing/paintings I start out with no idea what will ultimately end up on the paper. But I tend to make the same choices and come to similar conclusions. It can be a frustrating process where I’m frequently reminded of my imaginative limitations. Every work has its mistakes and some spur original thinking or sometimes, the remembering of some deeply forgotten thing of personal importance. It’s nice when those things find their way out into the art. So maybe, like exercise or therapy, art making is a path to some greater comfort or integration.

The interplay between my limited means (paper, choice of media, format, problem solving abilities and imagination) end up equalling what we know as “style” which can comfort the artist and their audience. But make no mistake, style is not the goal. The goal is the integration of the self and the proclamation of its beauty and potential usefulness to others. Can other people incorporate some of it into their own worlds? Can they support you and see the ultimate value of the artist’s selfish enterprise?

11-10-20a: watercolor, ink “Beasts of Burden