Oh, hi friends!
What are your expectations for today?
Where are you setting the bar?
What do you need to happen for today to be a good day?
And what if it already is?
“On a recent afternoon, the painter Steve Keene stood inside “the Cage,” a room fashioned from chain-link fencing and large sheets of plywood, situated in the center of his home studio, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Keene, who is sixty-five, was applying dabs of pink paint from a plastic tub to sixty plywood panels, each affixed to the Cage by a loop of wire. He is often cited as the most prolific painter in the world: he estimates that he has more than three hundred thousand paintings in circulation. His outfit—blue shorts, a white short-sleeved shirt, red sneakers, rubber gloves—was dotted with paint. Certain items in or near the Cage (a watering can, a container of kitty litter) had accumulated so many paint blobs that they’d become nearly unrecognizable.
‘I love the idea of doing sixty paintings a day, and finishing them, more than the idea of trying to make one that I think is perfect,’ he said. ‘The whole system is based on trying not to beat myself up.’”
Yes! Love this a lot from a new New Yorker profile. I go back and forth on the quantity versus quality question — obviously, you want both. But the idea of finding joy in the quantity, and getting something out of your studio and into the hands of people, is undeniably appealing.
Thanks to the great Kat’s Kable, a newsletter rounding up the best longform journalism, for bringing it to my attention.
Balancing on the edge? Looking for a job? Resource? Help? Collaborator? Drop it in the “Do you know someone who” Google form and I’ll put it in the newsletter this week!