Stimulation, aggravation and motivation…

All too often exhibitions of paintings and sculpture leave me cold, nothing catches my eye.  However, just occasionally, I see a work that stops me in my tracks and I wish I could have created it.  Those rare moments act as a stimulus for my own work.

On the other hand - and again all too often - I come across work so bad, that it angers me.  Nevertheless, the greater the aggravation the more the motivation to get up off my backside, pick up my brushes and do better.  (I should add that, I spend so little time on my backside, when I do have to sit down for longer than ten minutes it becomes painful.)

I owe my last spurt of creative energy to the aggravation of a recently published book of third-rate poetry and to the stimulation of Rodin’s moving figure of a woman in old age.

Auguste Rodin: “She who once was the helmet-maker’s beautiful wife”.

PS.  I should have posted this entry yesterday, but my attempts were thwarted by a computer conspiracy.  First, Internet down, then Google Blogger down.