A Wild Mind

Dorothy Parker, that famous doyenne of the literary Round Table and master of the pithy putdown, had a very challenging life. And personality. Reading a bio took some of the shine off her image, but she also had a brilliant way with words even when not being funny.

This particular quote resonated strongly for me: “Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye.” It certainly applies as much to painting as it does to writing or photography. The ability to brainstorm in your own head and imagine how something might take shape is a large part of creativity. Of course, executing on what you imagined is the challenge. That’s where the disciplined eye comes in handy.

Every good writer knows it’s harder to write short, editing yourself severely to make the message clearer and more accessible. The same is true for artists, who need to be disciplined about what actually matters in the painting. Every detail isn’t needed – that’s what cameras do. Showing how it felt to be there, what drew me to the scene, why it inspired me to paint… Including that, but no more, is the real trick.

Towards that end, I recently took a painting workshop that helped me loosen up, quickly conveying what was essential to a scene. I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it was, and I started these four (!) paintings that day. After time in my studio to finetune them, I have new minis ready for lucky collectors, featuring Venice, Rhodes and Canal du Midi. See them at Ivy’s Simply Homemade, on route 1 in Waterford, at my exhibit opening on Saturday, June 13, from 4:00 to 7:00.