saturday in the studio: triple play / by Philip Tarlow

ABOVE: left to right: icy creek, purple rock II and easter creek

2:57 PM:i started off my day in the ideal state of mind: not knowing. there are many different levels of not knowing, the highest being when you get kind of robotic in the positive sense & just do without thinking. of course this, in the wrong hands, could turn deadly. but in the right hands, it’s a recipe for meaningful marks.

DETAIL of icy creek

so i did more work on 3 paintings: purple rock II, icy creek and spring creek. icy creek had been hanging on my south studio wall & was a horizontal. i was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with it, until i final took it off the wall yesterday afternoon and painted over it at the very end of my work day, when the juices are flowing & i’ve found my rhythm. often, that’s when the not knowing kicks in at it’s very deepest level. it;s that WTF moment. and it doesn’t last long. so that, in my opinion, is the best of the 3. the other 2 need more work, although maybe not a lot.

and now my dear friends, up the creek we go, on one of our delightful afternoon walks. today we’ll go further up the trail than last time. tomorrow is a short work day, due to the annual luncheon at the zen center. we get to connect with crestonians we haven’t seen since the last luncheon, a year ago, hermits that we are.