Painting as Labor

I do love almost everything about painting.
• I love shopping for art supplies: paint, brushes, canvas.
• I love planning my work, making notes in my sketchbook, researching, visualizing.
• I love working with canvas: cutting, gesso-ing, stretching.
• I love the first marks I make on a white field.
• I love the violent colors of the first pass.
• I love the hours of silent working.
• I love to sit back and see a painting in different light, and different angles.
• I love it when I have problems, and then when they work themselves out.
• I love knowing a painting is finished.
• I love it if someone else likes my work and tells me.
• I love to get criticism of the work.
• I love to sell a painting.
I don’t love PR, trying to get shows, getting rejected, not showing the work, storing the work.
But most of the labor of painting is wonderful, and I feel lucky to be able to do it.