The Anecdotal Life Part 117.

Artist Statement

Why am I an artist in the first place? In the beginning the answer was simple. It was because we all were artists to some degree, my four sisters and I. My mother drew and made small paintings which she refused to show us. Art was the glue that connected us all. It was just something our family did. I majored in art in high school and took more art in college, because we all did. Didn't everyone? Later on it was what comforted me, made me feel at home. I took time for motherhood, but in my late twenties, when I needed to find myself, I went back for a Masters in Art. I worked in those days for a sense of satisfaction and completion, for sales, for approval and recognition, but eventually something else became clear to me. More than completion, more than the money , more than finding myself, or approval, I found in any art form that I honestly delved in (when I was lucky and determined enough to fight for the time and space) that experiences like "being centered" or "being in the zone" or being in some crazy suspension in time occurred. It was then I found myself creating things that seemed normally beyond me. It is perhaps a religious addiction. I don't know. I leave it to the wordsmiths of the world to explain it better. The best and purest visual example I ever came across was a video of a Picasso painting for about eight hours in a row, over and over on one painting, obliterating one masterpiece after another and it was quickly obvious that the end result meant little to him, but rather just the joy of the creative act... just the joy. That is what I work for.