For years I have been creating art. But always, I wonder how to create my art.

One of my first teachers was Japanese and I feel his influence in the pieces I am now painting. In Japanese ink painting, there is no correcting, it’s all in the moment: one endeavors to paint a circle. If the result is round and flowing and shows brush marks at the end, that is success. But real success is not the perfect circle; it’s the circle with just that certain imperfection that notches it into “art”.

That is what I am seeking in these pieces that I am making for this children’s calendar. I have this translucent fabric that I prepare in the traditional Japanese method (with soy milk resist). The color I put on the silk stays. The result is not perfection. The search is always for the imperfect, for art.

So much depends on the “weather of the mind”. But even then, bad weather can produce interesting results…

Years ago, an article on DeKooning asked him about his life in art. He described it thus: like a fisherman, every day the artist goes out to catch the big fish. And, regardless of what happens, he goes out again the next day in search of that big fish.