continuity

I feel too dazed by this point in the evening for my own words to make much sense (why don't I post in the morning more often?), so here are the words of another, an artist I've written about before, Alex Kanevsky, in a recent interview I read. I think it will be obvious why this struck me, particularly now as I have 4 weeks of painting time ahead of me, and no clear idea of what happens when it's over and my triad of residencies is complete.

"A little more than 10 years ago I won a Pew Grant that allowed me to do nothing but paint for almost two years. Doing that, I discovered continuity. Being able to come back in the morning to the painting I left last night, the memory of the work still fresh, and the sense of flow uninterrupted. It made a big difference to me, probably because I am not a fast painter, so I can never start and finish anything in one day. Usually, the paintings stay with me for weeks or months. The continuity was addictive. It gave me the taste of my personal right modus operandi. When the grant money ran out, I realized that I was now committed to this kind of life and would rather be very poor, but paint every day than return to the part-time world. For a while that is what I did, and later the paintings began to sell in the galleries, so I was able to go to my studio and paint every day ever since. That was my personal mini-revolution: the understanding of how I need to function as an artist and the commitment to do just that regardless of the circumstances."