On Choosing a Subject

How do I choose what I paint?

I was driving through Georgia from Atlanta. I stopped to get gas, and looking to my right, I was suddenly moved. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a landscape that keeps repeating. I keep seeing tall, tall trees and houses that, in comparison, seem to disappear underneath. I don’t know why, but every time I see it, it moves me.

I took a picture and brought it home to paint. I knew I needed to paint the feeling. I spent months trying to capture not the shapes but the sensations—the beautiful, claustrophobic anxiety that the proportions of those pines provoke in me. After many tries, it was two canvases on top of each other, the only solution to a subject too tall for my habitual square-shaped canvas. As always, everything clicked at 3 am. The colors, the lines, and the elusive feelings appeared on the canvas.

Choosing a subject to paint is like a game I used to play in elementary school called the magic box. It can only be played between the first and second grades because by the third grade, most kids have caught on to the trick.

It starts with two kids who know the secret of the game. They say the following:

"I have a magic box, and in this magic box, a dog fits but not a cat. In this magic box, a family can live, but not my brother."

After a few rounds, they ask you:

"What else fits in this box?"

Once you figure out that the only objects that fit in the box are words that start with the musical notes: DOg, REmote, MIcrophone, FAmily, SOLar system, LAmp, SInk, it's your turn to try to trick the other kids.

A lot of the joy of going to museums and looking at other artists is trying to figure out what the magical rules are that dictate what they paint. There are no general rules in Art, but each artist makes their own. And we're religious about it—our subjects, our color palettes, our formats, our tools. We get uneasy when something is off.

So, what are my magical rules?

I know it when I see it.

A mix of melancholia, nostalgia, and moments charged with emotions. Sometimes,  I'm quick enough to figure out what shapes, colors and  proportions are doing the trick, sometimes it takes me a while to figure it out. But there is always joy in figuring things out.