Thanks for your letter with all your news. Your life and work are certainly taking off in a big way. Congratulations !
To return to the question of 'honesty' in a painting, you said:
I'm not sure that you can equate 'honesty' with being 'free' and not caring what others think. I think that honesty in painting is simply being who you are and doing what is right for you. Whether that is sploshing paint about in an abstract, perhaps unthinking way. Or taking time to follow your own flow but with quality and precision.Most of my work is very controlled....I met an artist downtown who paints so freely. It just seemed to me he did not care what others thought. I dunno....it was refreshing. So I tried to do that...to just paint without being controlling...you know...to let the paint and gravity do what it wanted...because I could not bring myself to do like he does...which is put paint on the canvas with a brush but not care where it goes. I still care where the paint goes...lol...and I couldn't leave it at that...I had to control a little with the image, so it's still not as 'honest' as his work. Maybe that is as honest as I can be?
Anyway, I hope you can make time in a busy 2016 to keep on PN-ing whenever you can. Being the devil you are it's always fun and thought-provoking
Happy New Year to you and yours !!