{"id":5953,"date":"2015-05-21T20:49:41","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T20:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953"},"modified":"2015-05-20T20:51:58","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T20:51:58","slug":"why-paint-to-paint-of-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953","title":{"rendered":"Why paint? To paint, of course."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cream<\/a>After four decades of painting\u2014actually a little more than that\u2014it might be something of a mystery to a non-painter why\u00a0I would\u00a0put in five or six hours painting today, before or after three or four hours of doing work that brings in most of the money I need to pay bills. I sold seven paintings at my last show, so far my most successful show, measured in income, and yet through the sale of artwork I make only a small portion of the modest amount\u00a0my wife and I\u00a0need to continue living the way we do. Still, my ideal day is to paint for more than half of my working hours and then do what\u00a0other work I need to do\u00a0in order to keep my income at a level that sustains us. Why paint, though? Why not put those hours into something more lucrative? The short answer is, because I love it. It\u2019s a necessity for me. But that\u2019s little more than a tautology: I paint because I need to paint. Why do I love it? Why does any painter make pictures? What does it all mean? (And let’s be honest. I don’t love all of it. As Bill Santelli put it earlier today, there are long hours that feel like mowing the\u00a0lawn with scissors.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been circling around this\u00a0question for several years here, getting glimpses of an answer from different angles, at least in my case. And, when I have some time, I want to write at length about why painting points to a way of being engaged with the world that seems in greater and greater peril, with the rise of technology. All genuine work is in peril now, but especially craftsmanship rooted\u00a0in tradition. Matthew Crawford\u2019s new book has much to say about this, as did his first one. What\u2019s become clearer for me are the motivations that don\u2019t<\/em> drive me to paint. (I might be better off if these other motivations did<\/em> drive me, but they don\u2019t.) It doesn\u2019t depend on making money, though the income helps considerably and makes it easier to do the work. The metaphor of the pinball game used by\u00a0the engineers to describe their work in Soul of a New Machine<\/em> applies here: winning\u00a0the game is getting to play another\u00a0free one. It’s self-perpetuating.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t depend on recognition or exhibitions. Last year, I had work in eight shows\u2014five of them juried. I\u2019ve applied to nine juried shows this year and got into only one. What does that mean? Nothing, in terms of my dedication to\u00a0painting. I don’t need to hear people talking about me\u00a0either: my dealer here, Jim Hall, put it succinctly when he said recently that so much art that continues to be made on the assumption that it\u2019s possible to be \u201ccutting edge\u201d often seems to be work created in order to be talked about.<\/em> Work that offers little purchase for a discursive mind is considered decorative or otherwise beneath consideration. Some of my favorite artists created pictures about which it\u2019s hard to say anything useful other than write a poem to honor them: you see their world and want to live in it by looking at it or singing about it. The foremost example would be\u00a0Van Gogh, of course, but there are dozens of others. So being talked about doesn\u2019t motivate me\u2014or rather not being talked about has little effect on my eagerness to make a painting.<\/p>\n

So, my situation hasn\u2019t changed since the long years when I painted and didn\u2019t show my work. My eagerness hasn\u2019t waned, because the act of making a painting is the point: it\u2019s both the means and the end. When I sit down to paint, I still feel as if there is nothing else I would rather do than make a painting, until maybe, hours later, I get up to make a sandwich, and I\u2019m motivated to start spreading peanut butter instead of paint. Whether I\u2019m recognized or rewarded makes no difference. I painted for decades and rarely showed anything I was doing, partly because I didn\u2019t want to and partly because my sort of representational work\u00a0seemed to have no place in what was happening in the world of art. It wasn\u2019t until the economy collapsed in 2008 that I got serious about showing and possibly selling work\u2014a pretty funny and Quixotic bit of timing, given the economy since then. But it was a good indication that my motives didn\u2019t grow out of whatever the world was going to give me in return for the work. I guess I\u2019m saying that the motivation to paint is circular. Or is it recursive? I need to paint because I want to keep painting. I need to see what it shows me. Which will get\u00a0me nowhere, other than where I already am, maybe to\u00a0see it for the first time. So, for now, I\u2019ll step out of that loop of thinking, and I get back to just doing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After four decades of painting\u2014actually a little more than that\u2014it might be something of a mystery to a non-painter why\u00a0I would\u00a0put in five or six hours painting today, before or after three or four hours of doing work that brings in most of the money I need to pay bills. I sold seven paintings at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy paint? To paint, of course. - represent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why paint? To paint, of course. - represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After four decades of painting\u2014actually a little more than that\u2014it might be something of a mystery to a non-painter why\u00a0I would\u00a0put in five or six hours painting today, before or after three or four hours of doing work that brings in most of the money I need to pay bills. I sold seven paintings at […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"represent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-21T20:49:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"dave dorsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"headline\":\"Why paint? To paint, of course.\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-21T20:49:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953\"},\"wordCount\":870,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953\",\"name\":\"Why paint? To paint, of course. - represent\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-21T20:49:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg\",\"width\":1731,\"height\":1136},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?p=5953#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why paint? To paint, of course.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"represent\",\"description\":\"the painting life\",\"alternateName\":\"the dorsey post\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57\",\"name\":\"dave dorsey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"dave dorsey\"},\"description\":\"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.daviddorsey.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/thedorseypost.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why paint? To paint, of course. - represent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why paint? To paint, of course. - represent","og_description":"After four decades of painting\u2014actually a little more than that\u2014it might be something of a mystery to a non-painter why\u00a0I would\u00a0put in five or six hours painting today, before or after three or four hours of doing work that brings in most of the money I need to pay bills. I sold seven paintings at […]","og_url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953","og_site_name":"represent","article_published_time":"2015-05-21T20:49:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"dave dorsey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"dave dorsey","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953"},"author":{"name":"dave dorsey","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"headline":"Why paint? To paint, of course.","datePublished":"2015-05-21T20:49:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953"},"wordCount":870,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953","name":"Why paint? To paint, of course. - represent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg","datePublished":"2015-05-21T20:49:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Cream-Pitcher-in-Dining-Room.jpg","width":1731,"height":1136},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?p=5953#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why paint? To paint, of course."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/","name":"represent","description":"the painting life","alternateName":"the dorsey post","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5f1b414f169df69053f04f66b929fd57","name":"dave dorsey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b459062818b38ed5bb3f68365bc2557f760412a5db1278493176a6a45bb1c8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"dave dorsey"},"description":"I'm a painter living in Pittsford, NY. I've authored two books and also work as a ghostwriter. I sell my work through Oxford Gallery, and have exhibited around the U.S. and internationally.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.daviddorsey.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5953"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5960,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953\/revisions\/5960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedorseypost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}