early Paintings

how to make the first mark on a page?

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I took paint with me to morocco.  I spent a week in Fes, recovering from delivery riding and then took a bus across the atlas mountains. An Australian guy in my dorm had told me of an oasis town near the Algerian border and so I decided to begin there. I placed my paper and paint on a wall outside the bus station of Bouarfa and squeezed out some paint onto a plastic tray I had bought in the market in Fes. From the first brush stroke as I watched the paint flow out almost like magic, I remembered that I was just as entranced when I had painted as a child.

I chose to paint on the street to force me to accept whatever mark I made as being mine. Out in public without hiding away. 

And so I wandered and painted. with no idea what I was doing but slowly letting an idea lead me from painting to painting.

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I think that was a very good choice in how to begin and force past the intimidation of the first mark