6.13.2014 For a long time today I tried to study the quality that arises when I respond to an artwork. A friend of mine calls this quality 'the lift' and only when he senses it emerging does he judge an artwork successful. It is not about deciding that an artwork is good or bad, exciting or valuable, well rendered, or intentionally rough; the critical factor seems to be how strongly the work's presence is felt; a presence that doesn't come from any one aspect of the work but from a balance that is different in every work. I have noticed in trying to evoke this quality that careful planning sometimes chases it away; as do flippant brush strokes, and yet, just as often, they call it forward.
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