I have a book which was a Christmas gift and I love some of the painters thoughts and feelings. I have been contemplating what growth is and how it happens. Robert A. Johnson's words follow..."Ultimately it became clearer and clearer that the process of learning itself was the goal, and the painting skills quietly crept in the back door and magically appeared on the canvas. The push to learn and understand seemed to free me from the constraints that the ego imposes. As long as I was learning, the opinions of others had little effect. Even my own attitude was liberated from the grip of ego. If the painting did not meet the standard I aspired to, I was not dissatisfied but often derived an overriding comfort from my belief that I had learned something in the process. If nothing more than a deeper understanding of the weaknesses and mistakes that held the painting back.
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