Energy of the Canvas

"I think paintings by the time they are finished tend to take on a particular characteristic. That is one of the reasons they are finished, because everything has gone in one direction, and there is no recovery. The energy, the logic, everything which you do takes a form in working. The energy tends to run out, the form tends to be accomplished or finalized. Then either it is what one intended-or what one is willing to settle for-or one has been involved in a process which has gone in a way that perhaps one did not intend, but has been done so thoroughly that there is no recovery from that situation. You have to leave that situation as itself, and then proceed with something else, begin again, begin a new work."

— Jasper Johns