WRITING VERSUS PAINTING

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

I’ve been writing for a couple of years now, and I’ve gotten out of shape from all the sitting I do. It’s not a very healthy lifestyle, is it?

It also lacks the visceral excitement I enjoy when I paint. Yes, it’s emotional, writing, but I realize it’s not going to keep me fit the way lifting and carrying big paintings does. I also move energetically as I paint, but when a writer writes there isn’t much moving around. I see a lot of articles from writers recommending solutions to this problem, and I’m listening.

So, I’m still getting used to the writing lifestyle, trying to adapt it to my personality. I realize the combination of age and too much sitting will toss me into decrepitude before I’m ready. I don’t really want a stiff body with a spare tire around the middle, thank you very much.

When I paint, I go for the excitement of color, form and dramatic movement. It’s fun. I organize it late in the process, after I’ve gotten wild and crazy, exploring color combinations, forms and kinetic registers. A good painting becomes a statement, a language, with its truth welling up from the body. The body knows stuff that the mind has no inkling of, in my opinion. That’s where a successful painting goes. It bypasses the rational mind.

I realize, as I reflect on the way I write, that I’m trying to make sense of things, make connections that will…