The New Year

Today the beginning of a major renovation of two paintings.  I thought they were finished but now I see they are not.  Much was destroyed in the service of something more true and more clear.  I’m beginning to understand that one must deeply love the thing one is creating.  One must nurture it and let it become the most important thing in the world.  At the same time, one must be willing to risk its complete destruction.  It’s a tenuous balance between what appear to be opposite desires but look deeper, and what appears to be destruction is actually another form of love.  It’s the willingness to completely let it go and allow it to become something more true, more clear.  That’s love.