AES167 The Blank Canvas

Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile.

You don’t know how paralyzing that is, the stare of a blank canvas, which says to the painter,

“You can’t do a thing.”

The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerises some painters so much, that they turn into idiots themselves.

Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas.

But the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter, who dares,

And who has broken the spell of “You can’t.”

Once and for all. 

-Vincent Van Gogh-

We’ve all experienced writer’s block, or whatever the equivalent is for other creative slumps. It’s when we just can’t seem to produce any work, no matter how hard we try. I have spent hours staring at a blank page trying to come up with something, anything. I wonder if the old masters ever went through the same thing? Well apparently they did. Like Vincent Van Gogh’s blank canvas, taunting him, mocking him. There’s this fear that the work you do will never be good enough, that the canvas is better left blank. But Van Gogh gives us a reminder that the canvas is afraid of us. Of the painter, writer and artist that is brave enough to charge headfirst into the unknown and create. To silence the judging whispers of the blank canvas, you must first make your mark upon it.