A slipping Glimpser

Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning was a better painter than he was a poet, I think you’ll agree, but if, like him, you find yourself off balance what seems like most of the time, then take heart - as I do when I read his description of what it takes to find your way to inspiration in everyday life. To slip, to fall, to be unsteady & uncertain might just grant the odd insight or two.
Or at least I find it helps to look at life that way!

Each new glimpse is determined by many,

Many glimpses before.

It’s this glimpse which inspires you – like an occurrence

And I notice those are always my moments of having an idea

That maybe I could start a painting…….

….the real world, this so-called real world,

is just something you put with, like everybody else.

I’m in my element when I am a little bit out of this world:

then I’m in the real world – I’m on the beam.

Because when I’m falling, I’m doing all right;

when I’m slipping, I say, hey, this is interesting!

It’s when I’m standing upright that bothers me:

I’m not doing so good; I’m stiff.

As a matter of fact, I’m really slipping, most of the time,

into that glimpse. I’m like a slipping glimpser…..

(Wllem de Kooning, Sketchbook1: Three Americans, 1960)