October 6, 2000

Dear Maria,

Music pervades the studio, the headset-phone rings from time to time, the
brush proceeds. Here in the solitude of the easel-station there's time
to consider. I'm looking at hold-ups.

Did you ever stop to realize how drawing holds up brushwork? When work
is prepared with a drawing, simple or complex, there's the tendency to
work around the lines and cave in to the drawing. This can be an effective
way to go, of course, but for a lot of us drawing is a tyranny which impedes
freshness and spontaneity. The virus of overwork easily eats away if there
are lines to attend to. Drawing, while often a vital step, ought to be
implied or suggested with paucity. Brushstrokes then take on a look, a
beauty of their own, and the subject finds itself in the strokes.

And did you ever note how knowledge holds up flow? What we know how to
do and have come to depend upon can, in an innocent wander, turn adventure
to boredom. Sure, professionalism requires professional knowledge: order,
theory, technique, facility. The miracle is that knowledge gives its best
confidence when kept quietly in a secondary pocket. Only then comes the
undisputed magic of letting go. I'm not sure about everybody but it seems
what we want more than anything in our work are passages, even minor moments,
of "con brio."

I don't mind confessing that I live for those moments and cherish them
when they arrive. And when those moments elude me I'm most distressed.

Best regards,
Robert

PS "Leave your strokes alone." (Ted Smuskiewicz)

PPS "Perform with elan, brilliance and dash--at concert pitch." (Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi)

If you would like to see selected correspondence relating to the previous
letter "Process," please go to
http://painterskeys.com/clickbacks/process.htm

Esoterica: What does not impede is the knowledge that others are and have
been on the same path. While our stars may not, for the time being, shine
as bright as Monet's or Georgia O'Keeffe's, we are nevertheless of the
sisterhood and brotherhood. We're not alone.

You can keep in touch with artists of all stripes and ages in the Resource
of Art Quotations. We are beginning to put it up at
http://painterskeys.com/clickbacks/quotations.htm . Thanks to all who are
contributing and participating.

If you would like to comment on this letter or pass on your own experience,
advice or opinion, please do so. Your letter will likely appear in a couple
of days. If your letter is not for publication please let me know. Thank
you for writing rgenn@saraphina.com

This letter and previous ones appear in French at www.painterskeys.com/fr/

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