Thought.

Today I was listening to a 4 part youtube series by Ira Glass that was just….REALLY good for anyone doing *anything* creative. Most of it had to do with story telling, which was great as it pertains to my screenwriting, but something else he said – something about bridging the gap, really struck home. I’d found this saying on Pinterest before, but didn’t know where it came from until today.

I’ve been dealing with a bit of frustration myself. I see images so clearly in my head, but there’s a huge gap between what I want it to look like and what it does. Something’s lost in translation and I’m not good enough yet to paint more than echoes of what I’m really thinking, let alone being able to describe with words to people who ask, what it is that I see and what I want my stuff to look like. There aren’t words for it that make any sense in order and the best I can do is look far away and blush and say something that is the closest I can describe but really doesn’t match what I mean in my head to begin with.
“photorealistic” is as close as I can come to saying I want my paintings to have more depth and natural-ness. But I don’t want it to look….real. Actually, I specifically want it to not look real, I just want the things in the scene to look more real-ish. I want my characters to be more than flat outlines. I want the painting that I’m working on right now (writing while the layers of gesso dry) to look as clear and glowing as it does in my head. It probably won’t, and when I’m done I’ll be fine with that. But I decided today, after listening to the youtube thing, that I don’t care how long it takes me, I’m not going to stop, I’m going to work hard, and eventually the paintings I see in my head will make it to the brush in my hand – the movie that I see when I close my eyes will make it to my screen and I’ll be happy with it.