Stop worrying

I have three teachers in my independent painting class. I've had four critiques with two of them, and haven't gotten around to my third teachers yet because of snow days and busy schedules. I finally had a crit with her today and it kicked my ass. It was rough being faced with question after question and not having an answer.

Sometimes, I'm too serious about my work. I spend 75% of my time thinking and worrying about each piece. Fabienne told me to stop worrying. "Don't question things before. It doesn't have to be right. Just do it. You have time to worry about it after." Thinking is good. Worrying is bad.

I ask questions like, "Is it too serious? Does this frame work with this canvas? Will it work? No, probably not. Will I be done with painting after? Am I a conceptual artist? What does that mean? Can I still paint? Blah blah blah."

It's so dumb. Now, I feel like Fletcher and Christine (my other two teachers) baby me/us about our work. "I love this and this about your piece" and "This is great, it really pushes the idea of this and this". Not that I don't LOVE Fletcher's words of wisdom, but Fabienne really yanked me back into reality. I'm in school to discover where and what all of this means, not to worry about where and who and what and how.

This is the work I'm looking at.


Glenn Ligon


Glenn Ligon


John Baldessari


Mark Rothko


Jenny Holzer