Do you explore different materials when you are painting?
This week’s question comes from Thiago AMS:
Do you explore different materials when you are painting/making art?
I don’t.
Mariano Rivera was the Yankees’ closer for 17 years. During those 17 years he saved 652 games, made 13 All-Star teams, won five World Series, all while throwing exactly one pitch. A cutter. (Technically he also threw a four-seam fastball, but he threw the cutter 85% of the time, and because legend ultimately shaves off rounding errors, he’s gonna be remembered as a guy who threw one pitch.) He worked the hell out of that one pitch, and he worked it all the way to the Hall of Fame. Mariano Rivera, a union worker, was very good at his job, and no, I’m not comparing myself to Mariano Rivera.
What I’m saying is that Mariano Rivera understood the assignment.
The assignment was to get hitters out, and once he found the tool that did that he focused on the assignment.
My assignment when I paint is to tell stories. I want to improve the way I tell stories. I have found a painting material that I can use well enough (some would argue) to tell the stories. But if I’m trying to get better at one thing it’s the story telling, not the exploration of different materials. Getting good at two things is hard. Hard enough that I made a choice.
On the first day of high school art class our teacher, Mr. Harmon, handed out a supply sheet. It was maybe three pages long, and the most exciting list I’d ever seen. I wanted everything, and I was terrified that we wouldn’t be able to afford any of it. Amazingly, my father agreed to pay for all the supplies. (This one act of kindness has turned into the topic of dozens of therapy sessions, but that’s another story.)
That Saturday, I hopped on the subway and headed for the Utrecht’s on Broad Street in Center City. I’d been there before, but never with real money. (Just so we’re clear, real money was maybe $100.) I got pencils. (H and B!) I got charcoal. I got like 8 types of erasers. I got conté crayons (didn’t know what they were, but they were on the list). I got watercolors. I got gouache. I got acrylics. I got brushes. I got maybe four or five different types of pads of paper. I got a big brown paper portfolio, and a blue ArtBin box to store everything in. Fucking joy. I wanted to try all of that stuff.
Over the years, I’d go back and try even more stuff. I even managed to save up a little money here and there so I could afford oil paint.
The assignment back then was to explore. Which I did. Some of it with better results than others. I still have no fucking idea what a conté crayon is for, but other kids did. The assignment wasn’t to get good at anything, it was to get familiar with as many things as possible. It’s important to know what’s possible, even if to decide it’s not for you.
The other thing I recall from that particular real money trip to the art supply store was being overwhelmed. There was a lot of stuff, and eventually I found myself spending more time in some areas of the art supply store while avoiding other areas completely. And at some point you become the weirdo that only ever buys the one thing, but buys a lot of it.
Over the years the assignment changes from explore to focus. And the wild thing is it can also change from focus right back to explore. We expand and contract throughout our lives. This is the assignment. Be mindful of the assignment.
At this particular moment in time I am painting with one material1. And that allows me to focus on the stories that I want to tell. It’s a constraint that I’ve given myself. Constraints when used wisely are liberating as fuck. They eliminate possibilities that aren’t part of the assignment. Some people focus on a specific size painting, some people focus on a specific material, and some people focus on a specific subject matter.
Eliminating choices that aren’t core to the assignment help you focus on the assignment.
All things considered, we’d all be doing very well if we did just one thing even half as good as Mariano Rivera did his one thing.
Good luck.
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Last Thursday, five minutes after I publishing my newsletter, Trump was convicted of 34 felonies. Fingers crossed as I hit SEND today. Hoping for a massive coronary.
The Cutter, by Echo & The Bunnymen is about Mariano Rivera. (Not really, but I like thinking that it is.)
Stop cutting those bad men out of your prom and wedding photos! Get a sheet of Bear-ables from Betsy Streeter instead. $5 cheap.
Still selling zines.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. 🍉
It’s wax. Fancy people would call it encaustic, but then everybody would ask “What the fuck is that?” which is a very fair question, and leads back to just replying “Oh, that’s a fancy way to say wax. I’m using to justify my art degree.” So why not just fucking start there? Never use a $10 word when a nickel world does the job better.