As I worked across the surface of the largest canvases that I have ever worked on I could not help but think the shape of the form that was in the centre reminded me of a mass of encrusted paint in a painting [by Peter Doig] where there are brown black trees in a snowy landscape confettied with colour. I wondered how I expected to make a painting when it’s likely that artist had put so much design and research into the image he made.
Then I wondered what I was doing. My response was that I did not know what I was doing. My explanation to myself was that I was covering the surface of the canvas diptych with non predetermined brush strokes. I was working with the upright surface of the canvas in a lateral direction. I was thinking it out through the act of making.
Could this be lateral thinking 1? Does lateral mean sideways across the surface?
Later on the way back from the studio I was jammed into a doorway of an all night bus looking for foot space heading for 4am with party goers and merriment makers. One of them fell ontop of me. I pretended not to notice. I didn’t turn to acknowledge his apology either. The other three members of his party started to berate Bono. “He’s so stand-off.. …his bad hair…”. By the time I was stepping off the bus I could hear; “Bono can fuck off!”.
1 Lateral thinking is a manner of solving problems using an indirect and creative approach via reasoning that is not immediately obvious. It involves ideas that may not be obtainable using only traditional step-by-step logic.[1] Considered pseudo-science by some,[2] the term was first used in 1967 by Maltese psychologist Edward de Bono in his book The Use of Lateral Thinking. De Bono cites the Judgment of Solomon as an example of lateral thinking, where King Solomon resolves a dispute over the parentage of a child by calling for the child to be cut in half, and making his judgment according to the reactions that this order receives.[3] Edward de Bono also links lateral thinking with humour, arguing it entails a switch-over from a familiar pattern to a new, unexpected one. It is this moment of surprise, generating laughter and new insight, which facilitates the ability to see a different thought pattern which initially was not obvious.[4] According to de Bono, lateral thinking deliberately distances itself from the standard perception of creativity as "vertical" logic, the classic method for problem solving. Wikipedia.