artists philosophy by Ben Haggett

When I was at college, getting a degree in art and some teaching credentials, all the studio classes emphasized the conceptual. Sure, there was some very basic color theory, and some drawing, but mostly it was all about the idea you were trying to communicate, whether it was fresh and clever, ironic and self aware. At the end of the day, it really didn't matter whether you actually knew how to handle your medium, except maybe in ceramics. The part of painting that is about craft, about technical knowledge, about making color and value decisions, about, God forbid, standing out in the big wide world trying to understand what nature has put in front of you, that part, well, that was pretty much up to you. Maybe that's how it should be. After all, there doesn't seem to be any shortage of landscape painters. As for me, I have come to value simplicity above just about anything. Instead of trying to think my way through a painting, I try to quiet my mind, in order to get closer to something like a direct experience of what is. It seems to me that the product of such perception must of necessity be beautiful.

Of course, to have this artistic event happen your knowlege of the craft of painting has to become second nature. It's the same old conundrum that artists of all kinds have always faced. Practice, practice, practice. I have to say, though, I love the practice. Painting doesn't have an end. It just goes on and on, running like a river, and I like to stand in it as a river , and watch the evening grow out of it, the cottonwoods fired by the last light, pure color everywhere. Trying to convey some of this seems important work, though hard like all good work is, and if you feel just a bit of it looking at my paintings that's all I can ask.