Jason Zahn

I keep thinking that there’s some pathway for me to follow. In painting. In life. But sometimes I’m brought back to my senses by the truth that there is no path. I return often to the idea of Antonio Machado’s poem where he says ‘Pathmaker, there is path. You make the path by walking. By walking, you make the path’.

This is what I’m reaching for. Evidence that the work is the path, rather than guided by one. Signs of the struggle that comes with a journey worth undertaking. Scars and dings.

The irony is that “evidence of the path” almost never survives if you’re trying to preserve it. It shows up when you’re willing to risk ruining the painting—when decisions are made without knowing if they’ll work, and you don’t immediately clean them up.

Antonio Machado wasn’t offering a comforting metaphor so much as a hard constraint: there is no pre-existing structure to lean on. The only evidence that a path exists is the traces left behind.

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‘𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝘆 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴’

𝗔𝗰𝗿𝘆𝗹𝗶𝗰, 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁, 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲
𝟯𝟲 𝘅 𝟯𝟲 𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹
𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

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