What Makes Good Art ? It’s Not the Painting!

“Good art is not what it looks like but what it does to us.” — Roy Adzak

I saw a painting once that took my breath away.

Literally.

One moment I was walking through a gallery, the next I was nearly doubled over trying to catch it again.

I was in art school at the time, studying jewelry design. I knew soldering and hammering. Working in 3D. Painting? Not so much.

I’d wandered into someone’s MFA show—probably just to get out of the rain.

And then… that.

I don’t remember who the artist was. And I don’t even remember the painting.

But I will never forget how it made me feel.

I didn’t know what I was looking at—but my body did

At the time, I would have told you I didn’t know anything about painting. No training. No experience. No business having that kind of reaction.

And yet…

My body knew.

It didn’t care about technique or theory or whether the composition was “successful.”

It just responded.

Which makes me a little suspicious of all those tidy definitions of good art.

Because whatever that painting was doing—it had nothing to do with looking impressive.

It had everything to do with making me feel something I couldn’t ignore.

And maybe that’s what makes good art—not how it’s made but what it wakes up.

Now I see it everywhere

That same feeling—the quiet jolt, the full-body yes, the whoa, what was that—

It shows up all the time.

When I’m unpacking groceries and stop at the curl of onion roots. When I catch light hitting a row of cobalt bottles just so. When a shadow turns something ordinary into something else entirely.

Most of the time, I miss it.

I’m busy. Distracted. Already onto the next thing.

But every once in a while, something catches.

And if I stay with it—just a second longer than usual—I can feel it. That pull. That spark. The beginning of something.

Not a finished idea. Not a fully formed painting.

But a shift.

What I understand now that I didn’t then—

The image was never the point. It was the energy behind it.

The painting in the featured image came from that place—less about what I saw, more about what stayed.

Because when I paint—really paint—I’m not thinking about what something looks like. I’m not responding to what I’m seeing. I’m responding to what I’m feeling.

Chasing that same thing I felt in that gallery.

That full-body yes. That shift. The moment something wakes up.

Not everyone is going to feel it. They’re not supposed to.

But the person who does?

They’re not just liking the painting. They’re recognizing something through their own story, their own lens, their own wiring—but the energy is the same.

And that feels like the whole game.

Not chasing good art. Not trying to make something impressive.

But learning to notice when something wakes up inside me—and following it.

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This Week’s Creative Prompt

Today, notice what actually stops you.

Not what you think is interesting. Not what should inspire you.

What does.

That small jolt. That pause. That “wait… what?”

Now respond to it in whatever creative way that’s right for you.

No planning. No polishing. Just follow the feeling.

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Thanks for being here–and for noticing the world with me.

Til next week-