how do you make new work?

I went to my friend kristen's art opening last night. it was a multi artist show just up the street at the phinney neighborhood center. She had three paintings up, which i really liked... but i always like her stuff. she was getting ready to leave when i arrived, and i had only 10 minutes to look around, so we walked out chatting together.

kristen is an artist i really respect. she moved from figurtive work to abstract about four years and has made some fantastic paintings. she's thinking about grad school as well... but deliberating over the 60 G fee.

as soon as we walked outside kristen exclaimed, "Scott, what are we doing with our lives!" this is mostly in reference to being painters. i said i felt like i was just on auto pilot getting work done for shows. she said she might have to punch me to wake me up. (fight club moment? maybe...) i asked her what she meant.

she said she felt like she wanted to make new work, but she didn't even know what that looked like and she didn't know how to do it. she said she could still just make abstract work and she would definitely make new stuff... but she wanted to evolve, to do something new....

i told her that i wanted the exact same thing.

i felt like the work i have been creating for months is exactly the same... and it bores me. i need to evolve, to go to the next plateau.... but how? how do you make new work? maybe this is wierd for some of you who are not artists. so let me explain it a bit. every artist has their style... some people call in your "significance." this is basically what makes your work recognizable. when you see a van gogh, you know it's him. or a warhol. or a rothko.... they all have a look. they have all found their significance. even though you can see growth in their work, they have found their thing.

kristen and i don't really feel like we have found our significance. i definately think we are on that road, but no where near the end. so how does one get their significance? here's the funny thing... you can't consciously choose it. it comes with just creating all the time for years. you basically stumble upon it more than decide what you want it to be. so the only way to get to it is to keep creating all the time. then one day, you have it.

this is a frustrating journey... yet grand at the same time. i think kristen and i are in one of the many obstacles to being great artists.... the obstactle of not giving up.

i want to evolve. i want to grow. i want to make new work that i think is great.
but where do i start? so many options.

kristen and i vowed to keep going. so we will. and it's good to have a friend to keep journeying with. i feel like i have many artists to do that with. and that makes me blessed.