Moving, Thinking, Hands
I’ve always been convinced that I think through my hands. When I express this to others, it sometimes elicits a quizzical look, but then I explain that my work is intuitive and I don’t plan ahead, but rather start a new piece with a sense of play and making marks. What happens on the page is a reflection of my thoughts, revealed in layers, slowly and over time. Many artists work from the outside in and have a plan they want to execute. My practice has never quite worked that way….if I “think” of something I want to express and then go about trying to make a piece that conveys that idea, I can count on a dismal failure, one that is forced and contrived. But when I let go, give up that cherished idea and just begin to play, eventually that kernel of an idea finds its way to a resolution, maybe not right away, but eventually. And it usually arrives, as I like to say, through the back door…that is, in a way that is more nuanced and fresher, than I had once envisioned. “Oh”, I find myself saying, “this is the piece about that idea I abandoned in frustration.”
After decades, I’ve learned to trust myself and trust my own instincts. If I could share one little kernel of advice from my own studio practice to quell those moments of creative angst, it is this. Each of us must quietly close the door behind us, be with ourselves alone in the studio and trust our hands to reveal our innermost thoughts and feelings. There will be a revelation for ourselves and for the world, because the most authentic work must come from inside us and it is born through the movement of our hands with the materials and with the surface. We can each break new ground, rather than try only to emulate the work of those we admire. There is no other source in the universe for the work that we will make from our core. Each one of us is the product of a unique combination of body, mind and life experience. Who else could possibly make the work that is ours alone to make? Leave the phone outside the room, close the door quietly behind you and let your hands move. There will be revelation. This is what brings me back into the studio every chance I get.
