I am very crafty

and only getting craftier by the moment

if you are reading this guess what

you are just as crafty

I’m not referencing

popsicle stick ashtrays

or

friendship bracelets

what I am speaking of is the ability to take what you have,

whether the best art supplies or the worst,

and craft them into something new, fresh, exciting, or of greater value than what you originally started with

(as always I am leaving it up to the reader to ascribe the parameters of value)

there is a saying that I used to hear quite often in my youth and has stuck with me.

it goes something like this:

that the sum is greater than the total of the parts

Upon further investigation the quote is a loose translation from Aristotle’s Metaphysics book

The above succinctly describes painting for me.

A strange statement that has very little to do with calculations and a lot to do with feel

I want to dive into this a bit deeper and really flush out the importance that this mindset, when creating, has on me

Imagine

coming back from the art store with a few new colours, a pencil, a sketchbook

Pretty run of the mill artist fodder

exploration and expression by the artist with the tools available is what we are doing

and

Like any great artist the gear, tools, or supplies that they are working with should have no bearing on how powerful what they create is

the difference between myself and say

Gregory Hines

if we both have the same tap dancing shoes the efficacy of our individual performance will be very different

because we are different

The same can be said with any artist regardless of the medium

Van Gogh, J Dilla, Julia Childs, Vic Chestnutt

(And yes it might be fun to look up some of the above names you don’t recognize 😁)

Their success, failure, and abilities did not rely on the tools but in what they did with those tools

or

Your

sum

is greater than

the total of all your

parts

If I took myself apart like the engine of a car and spread out all the pieces on the floor

rubber, metal, and plastic strewn about randomly

As I know very little about an engine I am only able to understand and recognize a few of the parts,

Perhaps I might intuit the purpose and placement of a few more

after that it might as well be an unsolved mystery when dealing with the reassembly of the engine

My foray into painting felt very much like I was a beginner mechanic trying to understand how the engine works

let alone trying to put one together

I am comfortable in assuming that as a painter most of you have felt unsure about where to begin or the next step to take

the desire to learn in us is strong though

The first formative years of painting and drawing for me amounted to scanning the disassembled engine on the floor

Searching for something recognizable to start with.

through the process of trial and error I kept picking up, examining, and using all the different parts that make up my artistic engine

Some of the pieces do what I had originally thought, while others still remain a mystery.

Over time my artistic engine started taking shape.

Now

It starts when I need it

The horse power is steadily rising

And if there is a destination that I desire to go I feel secure in the knowledge that my engine has the right parts to get me there

Along the way I had people, mentors, instructors, or kind souls, illuminate me on different aspects of an artist’s engine Which i will be forever grateful for their help

this analogy is another way to explain how an artist

finds their voice and style

Because each artistic engine is different and unique to each person

their voice and style will be equally as unique

there is only so much that outside help can do for us in finding our voice

for how can another know us better than we know ourselves?

This is truly the difference between

Teaching and Instructing

There are no short cuts

The journey takes as long as it takes.

What is the most surprising is that the pieces and parts of me which I originally considered to be of little value or a hindrance in my artistic growth are the elements that have played the biggest role in my development

I had a habit to ascribe an element of positivity or negativity to the parts of my engine

the more I paint the more I gain evidence that what I thought was a negative has always come around and become one of my greatest skills

the issue being that I had mislabeled that part of my engine

the clarity I found in understanding my engine

changed this:

“Geez you really don’t plan what you are going to paint very well”

into

“I paint while in the moment operating at a level of instinct and sub conscious”

The quirks of my personality,

the way I behave, think, or emote are all parts of my

artistic engine

The greater I understand why these parts are in my engine and how they fit and work together the greater the success of my paintings

and in my books

Success = Continuing

This way of thinking alleviates the concern in making a mistake with my artistic growth

and

allows me to focus instead on the real crucial part of my engine

what fuel makes it run?

(A discussion for another time)

We are lucky as artists

Our one mandate is to be unequivocally

ourselves

Who I am is not limiting my advancement of anything in my life

let alone painting

My lack of

understanding

who I am is what

limits me

for in the end my fellow artists

our seed has been sown in the soil of the

infinite

our being made up of the fabric of the universe

We are

limitless

The bindings that I believe have held me in place

are in fact

the elements that have

allowed me to

grow

into

myself

It is interesting what one painting can inspire in me (the above Note)

Accompanying Lindsey to Hamilton during her CPR training

this was the second painting of the day.

-20 degrees Celsius and early

Managed to head up to the top of the mountain via Jolly Cut

Set up in the park with the best view

Got to it

Went to the art store and purchased some spray paint and with a piece of charcoal came up with this

Sum Greater than the Parts