Painting is like Dancing

[caption id="attachment_302" align="alignleft" width="287" caption="Artist Ann Rea"]Artist Ann Rea[/caption] What? Painting is like Dancing? Isn’t this a non-sensical contradiction to the quote I referenced in my last post, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” Yes, it is.  But when I’m trying to explain my creative process I’m forced to offer the best analogies that I can think of and that my audience might be able to relate to. Last month I was a guest of Bin 38 at their holiday evening wine tasting event in the Officer’s Club at Fort Mason.  The Officer’s Club is a beautiful historical building that is part of Golden Gate National Park.  It has a stunning view of the San Francisco bay that includes Alcatraz. I met an enthusiastic architect, whose undergraduate degree was in studio arts, specifically painting.  And so he was appreciating my work from his experience and complimenting my hand.  What is that?  My hand refers to how my hand moves across the canvas to create strokes of paint. Why is this significant? Everyone’s movement creates an individual expression, just like their handwriting.  Painting only happens because someone is moving paint across the canvas. The trances of movement often reveal or suggest emotions.  There are brush strokes that are jagged, tentative, sweeping, or wispy, to name a few. So when I’m moving my hand across the canvas and laying down paint I’m reminded of moving my feet across the dance floor when I’m Salsa dancing, except that I’m alone and I’m leading the dance.  My stokes often reveal my emotion.  The ease of my movement makes the dance work, it also makes the painting work.  Once you learn the steps, it’s time to stop thinking and time to start feeling.
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