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Internal Patter

When abstract painting,
work from your intuition,
always asking yourself
ongoing questions.
Focus on authenticity,
on deliberately delicious
variety, never randomness.
Don’t limit yourself;
enlarge your menu of options
of both elements and of methods.
Compliment delicate, careful strokes
with bold, spontaneous ones.
Be aware of the different roles
of positive and negative space,
how the same gray looks different
on white versus on black,
and make sure you leave
enough open areas,
because breathing room
is totally important.
Vary the amount and placement
of all your parts so they
read as a whole instead of
as disparate fragments.
Concentrate on the scale
of constituents and
their comparative values.
How do they relate
to each other
as well as the outer sides?
Make each line distinct,
sometimes using your
non-dominant hand for fresher,
less controlled interest.
Juxtapose quiet space
with vibrant visual density;
balance feathers with lead,
symmetry with asymmetry.
Courageously amuse yourself,
pushing boundaries
and preconceptions,
exploring with curiosity
the character of components
and how they make you feel.
Notice and utilize
a wide range of edges,
simple and unusual,
contrasting
sharp and smooth
ramrod straight
with loosely loopy
curved with jagged
brambly and soft
huge with tiny
dark with light.
Everything you add
connects to the entire,
bypassing the
conscious mind,
revealing the
veracious quality
of your dear,
subconscious integrity.
Learn to steward
a healthy inner dialog,
staying intent only on
what you are seeing
and engaging with right now,
and refraining from
repeatedly cycling around
into planning ahead.
And remember,
you do not need
to play with all
the toys, every time.
Give yourself some margin.
Stop while you are ahead.

Intentionally constructing
a good life takes a lot of
the same sort of internal patter
and similar blithe but
exact consideration
that goes into a great
abstract painting.

Effort and release.
Mindfulness of relationships.
Overlapping priorities.
Intuition. Contrast. Scale.
Variety. Interest.
Staying on the page.
Moving your eye around.
Seeing and seizing
possibilities.
Liking the result.

Polly Castor
9/17/18

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