“Art is slow, physical, resistant, material-based, and involves an ongoing commitment to doing the same thing differently over and over again in the studio.
— Jerry Saltz, “My Life As a Failed Artist“, in the 17 April 2017 issue of New York Magazine
“The same thing.” But is it truly? You’ve the same materials, the same techniques, yet never quite the same knowledge nor emotional state or mood. You’ve also got another day’s experience, for better or worse, from whatever you did the day before.
A favourite brush wears out and you’ve got to get familiar with another. You can’t find a particular tube so use something else and all your colour mixing shifts.
I wonder if it isn’t more “involves an ongoing commitment to doing a similar thing again and again, with the infinite variables that small changes bring”. Or is that close enough to call it “the same”?
I think the answer to that is in the quotation itself. “the same thing differently” …….. sounds good to me.