Chaos of Creativity --acrylic-- by Sue taylor Perez
Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.
Oscar Wilde.

I don't plan. My paintings start out as chaos, and my life seems to parallel my art. Often times my paintings become an unorganized race to conclusion, on a scale of chaotic disorder never before witnessed by anyone outside my family. My life and my palette is out of whack. First of all I don't use a real artist palette. I use a paper plate. I thought I was smart, it's disposable and fits neatly into a plastic zip lock bag to keep acrylic paint overnight. Most times when I paint I put the color I plan on using anywhere on my disposable palette without a plan. Often times I mix right on the canvas, so my colors aren't uniform. I paint in chaos.

I had read Robert Glenn's Twice Weekly letter on “Tales the pallettes tell”. He states that “Whistler believed proper palette organization was the key to all the good stuff. Seurat, as we might imagine, kept his mainly primary pigments in a pretty rigid and unwavering order.”

Glenn goes on to explain how many artists value the organization and planning of their palette as a fundamental part of their creating.

It sounds way too left brain and type A, to me. I prefer my art and my life in mayhem. I don't organize, I don't schedule. I jump into everything with both feet and start with no rhyme or reason. With my art, I may have a vision of what I want to do somewhere in the back of my head, but often times my paintings take on a mind of their own and mutate into something very different than I envisioned. Has it worked? Hmmmm... I think I need to rethink thumbnail sketches, plan my colors, and decide where my art is going. My chaos must be reformed. It almost sounds like work. I'll let you know how that works for me. ......Sue