“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Forget the idea of man’s work and what your paintings should (underlined) provide, and the idea of fame or success. Let yourself go with the joy of painting what you want to; but forgetting also, again, the idea that your paintings are working out problems, technical or not.

You wanted to express ideas in paintings that do not come in youth, and to merge a particular kind of understanding with a particular kind of form. You had an existence in which your art matured early, as Josef in Ruburt’s Seven. You dealt with emotion unrestrained by discipline, and with the feelings of a young man. Josef was not able to paint anything worthwhile past the age of 40, and he turned to a land-owner’s province.

His “success” (in quotes) was no success to him. The illumination that makes great paintings, again, has nothing to do with time. A man may work for nearly a century and not attain it, or it may come tomorrow afternoon.

(11:22. The portrait discussed above is one I recently finished after many attempts. I nearly discarded it several times, and even now realize its shortcomings. I “saved it”, and learned from it, but it of course bears the scars of the struggle. It’s serving as the basis for new work and ideas also. The long-haired man facing the viewer’s left.