So it is with blank canvas.
I remember listening to a Stephen Hawking interview (and, don't you love his computerized voice?) in which he talked about the wonderful potential of emptiness. I love that time when I look at a canvas and it can still be anything. Well, in my mind it can. And, within the limits of my abilities it can. You see, I start to apply limits.
And once I apply something real, paint, crinkly paper, charcoal for a sketch, then some of that potential is gone. Now there is a direction, a goal, and a limitation.
Perhaps that's why I love babies, and puppies, and kittens, and piglets. . . . well all things infant. All that wonderful, amazing potential is there in its raw form.
But, to create anything, I must apply the paint, sketch with the charcoal, glue on the paper. I must choose. I must evaluate and judge.
Somehow in the bigger world, beyond art, that has gotten a bad rap. "Don't judge me." Well, judge we must. In everything. Do I like this or that? Do I choose to sleep in or go to the gym? Even do I want to be around this person or not.
As a human I cannot absorb or be or do all things. So, I must judge and I must choose. And, having done that, I begin to create. But, I also limit that amazing potential. Such is life.
