Paintpushers

My biggest fear as an artist is that I won’t know when to stop. I’ve been struggling with how thick or thin to paint. How much is too much? How simple is too simple? What’s a part of my process and how much is obsessive? How long can I ask these questions before I seem like I’m on a crazy rant? I sit in my studio afraid to start something because I won’t know when its finished.

For about four years I have been working conceptually on an idea, a painting about the three fates. Over the years I’ve struggled with composition, symbolism, color, and layering. All my work on this subject has been preliminaries.

The Fates, otherwise known as the Moerae, are the weavers of destiny. In Greek mythology, these old women control the lives of every individual, gods and man. Even Zeus was subject to their rule. The fates are in every part of Greek mythos if only in the abstract. Clotho is the spinner, Lachesis is the apportioner, and Atropos is the inevitable.

If I believed in the fates, maybe I could blame my compulsive and indecisive behavior on them. Maybe all this upheaval will lead somewhere, if the fates allow.