The art of listening

Painting is an active conversation

We’ve all experienced those conversations where the person you are speaking with spends way more time talking than listening. They are more interested in their opinion than yours. If you treat your paintings the same way, the conversation won’t go very well.

 Art, especially abstract art, is a conversation in three parts. When you place your first mark, the conversation begins. When you place the next mark, the conversation continues, but now a relationship forms between the parts. It’s your job to listen and consider just as you would at dinner with friends. As the painting progresses, just like any discussion, it goes where it goes. It may seem counterintuitive, but the less we try to steer it, the more intuitive it becomes, the better the outcome.

 Learning to really listen to the work, taking the time to let it speak to you and tell you what it wants, takes patience, thoughtful consideration, and trust. The more the work progresses, the more thoughtful the responses become. It’s easy to see the corollary between active listening in oral communication and visual communication. 

In 1988, in a CBS interview, the contemporary artist Richard Diebenkorn recounted sitting in a chair, looking at a near-finished piece for the better part of a day. Considering it for hours to ultimately make one small move on a very large piece.

When I’m far enough along with a piece, I listen like an old friend. And if it tells me, I carefully weigh my response. Once I get a feel for what the painting needs, I develop and consider multiple solutions, not just one. I wait before responding and measure my words. You know, the way a good conversation should go.