Ben Shahn certainly felt that the search for self
was an oil of the being of himself as artist.
* * * * *
I am an infant in this field of expression. I did not plan to be an artist at an early point. Rather, I “heard” that I was to be that, and I clicked into place.
In the expression of myself in this work, I began to feel the power of making people and animals, trees, houses, and in so doing, there was an added joy. People were enjoying, approving what I did.
That wave was ridden for a while and it was easy
But when it was evident that art was a field of action – influence in a world or universe – I was quite paralyzed in fits and starts.
There is a responsibility I have. I must be my own therapist and find / search for every means possible to release the personal expression of truth – of spiritual footprints on the path I was put onto.
So now, my path is not people made, and animals and houses, but the whole page or shape must be reshaped inside itself to say: choose life. Feel it and live; see it and be moved.
May 11, 1973