Benjamin Terry interviews painter Arthur Peña whose exhibition slight shift, steady hand will be on view at Dallas Contemporary from January 11 – March 30, 2014.
Peña comments: "My take on (intuition) is that when I’m working within the visual language I’ve set up for myself and my work for a certain amount of time there is a reflex that builds up, like muscle memory. The problem with intuition is that it relieves the artist of the responsibility that is inherent in intent. There are moments when I can’t explain why something happened in the work or why I chose one material over another, but those decisions come from spending time with the work, thinking about the work, looking at the work and making the work."