Things change.....

"Eastern Hills"
9"x12" acrylic on panel
Click here to bid on this painting

So here I am, breaking one of my cardinal rules....blogging/emailing after drinking a bit. Didn't I learn anything from watching "The Social Network?" On the other hand, the whole idea of a blog is that it is a forum where we can present ideas without being constrained by the normalities of many other venues in society.

That said, here's my radical revelation: I love masonite! Shocked? I can understand that. Maybe it's just the margarita talking...After all, does anybody really understand the difference between this stuff and other engineered wood panels? For instance, did you know that it's one of the only wood panels produced that doesn't use formaldehyde...I didn't. I mean, what was the chance that anything used for desktops and roofing in the 1940s was going to be naturally based and environmentally friendly?

Anyway, aside from it's unique quality to piss off the likes of James Watt, Christine Todd Whitman, and Stephen Johnson, it makes a very fun painting surface...It might also be pretty effective in the banging-the-head-against-it category should the need arise.

"Eastern Hills" 9x12 on masonite panel is a slightly different attempt at folding a bit more realism into the imagined landscape.

Moving Forward

"Morning Field"
8"x10" acrylic on canvas panel
Click here to bid on this painting

Even though I'm ashamed that I've been away from the blog for a couple of weeks - mainly because I promised myself this wouldn't be one of those things I'd be hot on for a short time and then drop after a few weeks - I've been pretty diligent in the studio. Several still-lifes, lots of sketching and studying, and some new landscapes have managed to emerge amidst ArtWalk preparations, and puppy neutering rehab. Lucas managed to be more spastic and silly while he was stitched up, collared up and drugged up....in a word, he was the quintessential Corgi.

Again it feels like every day in the studio brings something new that six or eight months ago I wouldn't have dared to attempt...to some they may seem to miniscule, but to this wandering saxophone player, they're beyond huge.....

On familiar ground, "Morning Field" is the last of the small acrylic studies that I plan to re-visit in larger oil format...

Poplars

"Poplar Trio"
9"x12" acrylic on panel
SOLD

Truck back home (please see aforementioned Grand Canyon accident).....Lucas recuperating from surrendering his manhood....everybody finally healthy.....

New paintings! Yes!

Stormy Weather

"STORMY DISPOSITION" 12"x16"
acrylic on panel
SOLD

No insights today; just a new painting....peace

Mixed Messages

"MIXED MESSAGES" 12"x16"
acrylic on panel
currently at Gallery 527
Click here to bid on this painting

Listen up kiddies, I've got two new lessons for you.

First up: Karma is a bitch.

Less than twenty four hours after using this very forum to elucidate about some recent close-calls with unobservant drivers near our studio and home, I wound up in an accident on a snowy road at the Grand Canyon that has shaken not only my confidence in the four-wheel drive capability of my previously mentioned truck, but left me questioning what the universe is trying to tell me from time to time.

Which brings me to lesson two: The universe has a perverse sense of humor.

As I was driving up to said canyon grandness, I was bemoaning the fact that there wasn't any snow on the ground. This is because my wife and I, both being artists have been waiting two months for weather -- any kind of weather -- to arrive here in Northern Arizona. You see (as other artists will attest), bad weather makes for great paintings and photographs.

I was worried that once again, the National Weather Service had promised us snow, and all that I was seeing was rain. Granted, rain is better than nothing, but snow is better.

About ten miles south of the canyon, the snow hit. And it was clear that all of my concerns were unfounded. At this point, just for kicks, the universe had someone pull out in front of me at a snails pace as if to remind me of the previous evening's rant. Not to be deterred from my winter wonderland mindset and with visions of Moran Point covered in snow and hoar-frost, I slowed even further, shifted into four-wheel drive, and settled back to enjoy a slightly longer drive to the spot where Kim and I were meeting up.

So here I was, in one of the world's wonders draped in new snowfall, with my lovely wife and happy puppy, nestled safely and warmly in a large four-wheel drive vehicle. None of which matters when a snow-covered ice patch decides to send you into opposing lanes.

Mixed messages indeed.

Back at the easel finally; and for sale....

"BACKLIGHT" 10"x10" acrylic on panel
SOLD

Sometimes it's not about art. Sometimes it's nice just to have a forum in which to vent. Like this time...

Unrelated to painting, over the last week or so, I've been unfortunate enough to have several drivers pull out in front of my car on a highway between Sedona and Jerome (AZ). And all of them have been at the same intersection/side-road. Now granted, we're not talking about I-405 in LA here; most of the time, there's barely another car around for more than a mile. But...it is a highway. Those of us traversing it lawfully are usually doing so at between 65 and 70 mph....others are often proceeding at a somewhat more brisk clip.

Anyway, being a four-lane highway, when a mid-tone sedan with one or more octogenarians -- did I mention that the majority have been a bit on the elderly side? (I don't want to generalize, but...) -- suddenly pulls onto the the highway at 7 mph with less than 1000 yards warning, and in my lane; well, it's more than a little distressing. Now understand, by necessity, I drive a very large pickup...it checks in at around 12,000lbs.

I just can't comprehend what these yutzes are thinking when they do this....did mom and dad never tell them to look both ways back when they were little ones? Anyhoo...to move this anecdote along...because I was forced to reduce my speed by nearly 90 percent as I moved into the VACANT adjacent lane, I got a good look at the offending driver. Oblivious, unaware, vacantly staring straight ahead, hands dutifully at ten and two on the steering wheel, and apparently applying equal pressure to brake and accelerator -- brake lights illuminated, but neither slowing nor accelerating.

Three hours later, he walked into my studio...same expression. Didn't look at the paintings, photography, or even the excessively cute puppy bouncing up and down in front of them. Walked out without uttering even a grunt.

I've always known that most people go through life asleep, I just wasn't aware that the dead had now started to arise and were driving imported sedans.

New year, new directions

(So...a first post....intimidating as hell....)

A few weeks ago, I admitted for the first time to myself and a few friends that I thought a phase of my life that had dominated for nearly 25 years was over and that something new was on the horizon. After being a professional musician and composer for nearly half of my life, it was becoming apparent to me that things were changing...music, though still a primary force, was no longer the element of my creative life that was foremost.

...to be honest, I had been feeling this for quite some time -- I just wasn't ready to admit it out loud. Of course, my wife, ever more aware than myself, knew it before I said it -- one of these days I'll learn to go to her first rather than stew about things until I drive everyone else nuts.

The short version (the long version will most certainly be discussed here in the future) is that painting, and all of the things that go with it, has become much more than the therapeutic diversion it had started as a little over one year ago. It has become an obsession....and I feel much better every time I admit. So, dear blog reader, there it is...

Welcome to my first year as a full-time visual artist. I have no idea where this new direction will lead, but as a teacher once told me...we are not in control of the art, we are in service to it...