SYNOPSIS: Irish artist and motorcycle enthusiast Rodney Dickson chooses many ways to describe “living along the edge,” from his coming of age amidst the political turmoil of 1960s and 70s Ireland to the arduous task of finishing a satisfying, let alone great, painting. It can only be described as a general state of vital, ecstatic uncertainty that has come to define his artistic process, which is by turns contemplative and fervent.

Filmmaker Bill Page focuses on three subjects—the artist, his materials, and his canvas—and their relationship, emphasizing through space and camera movements their connection. Through this, he documents a highly experiential artistic process that is as exciting as the finished product. He films Dickson in his Brooklyn studio as he squeezes, dabs, brushes, scrapes, dilutes and spills prodigious globs of paint upon his large canvases amidst huffs and puffs, with large pauses as he considers what he’s just done and what he’s about to do. “I have to keep creating and destroying, and then pushing one step further,” says Dickson. “I’ve ruined many paintings that way, but that’s okay.”