Paint your wagon

art + energy = artergy. That’s a completely made up word that has some vaguely relevant ring to it. I enjoy it because it kind of  includes artery, and something of strategy.

It’s hard to imagine how down and out an artwork would have to be to contain absolutely no energy. It’s the kind of stuff you find in charity shops. But even the most clumsy paintings of cats, flowers and half-naked people staring into the sunset can have conviction. And pulsate with a heartbeat that comes from wanting to evoke the rush of lived experience.

You have to love Cy Twombly and Philip Guston for the sheer force of their craziness. Flowers painted by impressionists are the source of endless fascination for self-taught painters. And you can understanding why. A field of flowers is like a field of little people, living in an abstract realm.

As for the Sunday painters, I pity the ones who are trapped into wanting to paint like photographs. Someone should tell them that there’s nothing better than breaking the rules.

I’d rather make a million mistakes than convince people that this hand is an extension of a computer tablet. It gives one new found respect for the very famous artists who hang their paintings upside down. Just for the hell of it.