fill, full, unfill

You have to edit the material. That assumes that some kind of a mind is operating in relation to the material. Not all minds are the same. Every aspect of filmmaking requires choice. The selection of the subject, the shooting, editing and length are all aspects of choice. - Frederick Wiseman





My Bowl is Full
encaustic
8x8 inches

I tweeked this painting last week and am much happier with it. Originally I had embedded a pressed fern frond in one of the squares. You can see it at my flickr page. After a few months, the leaves faded to a dull yellow, and while it looked fine, it bothered me. I also knew that I wouldn't want to sell it if there was a faded leaf in there, even though, like I said, it still looked fine. But I liked the green. And it wasn't green anymore. So it had to go.

I am so much happier with this version. There is always a hesitation when I return to a "finished" piece. There is a worry that I will ruin the painting. But honestly, if something doesn't feel right to me, I can't ignore it. I have also come to believe that there really is no such thing as ruining a painting. If something does get ruined, then it wasn't meant to be and it was meant to give birth to something better. (Although I have spilled red paint on a finished painting and did, indeed, ruin it. But you know what I mean.)


The writing itself is no big deal. The editing, and even more than that, the self-doubt, is excruciatingly impossible. -Jonathan Safran Foer