Don’t Manage the action, Managing the Reaction!
I remember my days in corporate America. I learned very quickly to manage the reaction not the action. The action means doing something to create change. The reaction is the results of that action. When you only manage the action, the results are not always predictable. How does this apply to an artist? That’s simple - this is the “Golden Rule” by which I live by as an artist when I am mixing paint to achieve a cretin color or hue in my artwork. In the back of my mind, I am always thinking about what the reaction might be from me doing this or that. In other words, I need to know what the reaction might be as I am working on a painting or printing a pillow, or a scarf/shall.
Despite my efforts to manage the process, sometimes the result is not what I had expected so I find myself either adapting to my creation or starting all over again to achieve a different result. Thomas Edison tried over 1000 times before finally inventing the light bulb. When asked why he failed over 1000 times, Edison replied, “I did not fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention that took 1ooo steps!” All those actions or steps were needed to create that one, specific reaction. It was not predictable in any way, but he kept trying until he got to that predictability. In 1991, “Bright Lights” was created. My inspiration was that constant predictable action of the stop sign which may seem trivial but when you think about all the actions that went into it, one comes to appreciate the magic behind it. This is such a great example of managing an action and knowing the perdictable reaction - always the same (i.e., stop and go). Simple things that are taken for granted are for me the food for creation. I hope this gives you some delicious food for your next creation! Over but not out. (painting 18” x 24”)
- Subject Matter: abstract