A Brief Musical Interlude

  Not much to say. Rain and clutter receding. A new painting started. Anyway, here's a couple of my favorite songs:








Bob Wills doesn't get nearly enough credit. Have a great day. I'm gonna go paint.

If I Had A Nickel For Every Time I Forgot This Part...

 I've been knocked down. A lot. Really hard sometimes. I scratch and claw and make some progress, only to be knocked back again. I've spent a considerable amount of time lying in a ditch, nursing my wounds, then struggling to rise again and get back on my way. One of my favorite quotes is:

Fight on, my men," says Sir Andrew Barton,
"I am hurt, but I am not slain;
I'll lay me down and bleed a while,
And then I'll rise and fight again.

I first heard this from Marv Levy, the great Buffalo Bills coach who took his team to four straight Super Bowls, only to have them lose each time. I think of this quote quite often. It makes me feel better to know others have faced similar struggles. I thought of this last night. I have worked hard to get my studio cleaned and organized, to make it into a warm, inviting place where I can forget all the crap that's weighing me down. Last night a big storm blew through and turned the leak in our roof (which I have fought for years with a budget of next to nothing) into a torrent. Water went down the hallway and crept around some of my paintings. The only place I could move them to save them was my studio, which sits cluttered and cold, denying me the least little bit of comfort. I'm knocked down again. I'll get up. Probably not today. Probably not tomorrow. Certainly not until the storm passes. I can hear water dripping as I type this. Even Robert Johnson can't drown it out. (Drown... see what I did there?) I get knocked down and get back up, then get knocked down and get back up, until I just can't get up again.

"Zen of Serenity"

It Gets Pretty Rough Sometimes

  Another art week is winding down. I go back to my day job tomorrow. I never get as much done as I'd like to, and I always seem to get ambushed by life. I understand that my art days also have to be the days I get errands done but lately it seems like more things pop up to sidetrack me. I finished a couple of projects that I've been dragging out. I also did some work in the organizational end of my life. I did get to paint. I just couldn't seem to get a big enough block of time cleared to devote to me being me. It seems  I was more stressed out this week than normal. Nothing that some time in lava lamp lit studio couldn't fix. I'm just not ready to go back to waiting on people yet. It gets harder every week. I tell myself that it won't be much longer, and in the grand scheme of the universe it won't be. It just seems to be harder mentally than before. It's mighty hard physically sometimes too. I've got the blues playing. I've got paintings on my easel. My brushes are close at hand. I'll be alright.

   This is a work in progress. I'm trying to open up my self to my fans, to let them see how my process works. It's not something I'm really comfortable with.

Sometimes It's A Burden

   The studio is looking good. The music is pumping. Everything is falling into place. I have plenty of paint. My brushes are lined up, ready to be sacrificed to the gods of art and creativity. I'm just running low on things to paint on. I've used up all my good sized canvas, even the canvas panels. I've been 'recycling' some of my lesser works. Call it culling the herd. Call it being green. It's really my last resort. I'd certainly rather have every painting I've ever done ready in case someone wants to look at it. I do have photographs of almost everything I've ever done. Except for a painting called "Hear No Evil" which was sold through the PAPA Gallery in Paducah, KY before I realized I didn't take a picture of it before I took it in to be exhibited. Mr. Organized blew it again. I guess it does add to the mystique. A painting ready to resurface in twenty years or so. A lost masterpiece. I guess. I really don't much remember what it looked like. Anyway, I pick a few paintings to be sacrificed and as I'm smearing paint and laying out the subjects I realize that these three are over almost before I've started. Minimalist abstracty gems ready to be posted on line. Well, as soon as I take their picture. Here's a little something special for those of you reading my blog. My newest painting:

  No idea on the title for this one. I'm open for suggestions if anything strikes you when you see it. Just remember you get to see it before anyone else on the web.

Damn, I Keep Forgetting To Fill This Line

  Seems I might have celebrated the end of winter a bit early. The crappy cold weather seems to be over, but there's enough rainy dreariness to keep the feeling going. It's been slow at work, so the money hasn't been optimum in a while. I still sell enough art to keep me from totally saying 'screw it', but supplies continue to be a problem. I haven't found any thrift store art to paint over, which means I've painted over a lot (well, a handful) of my old work. On one hand it does cull the herd, as it were, getting rid of all but the absolute best art. Judged by my opinion. It makes my oeuvre much more impressive. It does mean that every time I take a brush to a painting to start a new one that it's one more painting I didn't sell. It's painful to lose a painting like that. Worse than having art stolen (believe me I've had my fill of that). It does give me a chance to create something powerful. It keeps me sane. However it is an odd feeling to prep a painting and lay out the design, only to realize that it's done almost as soon as I get into the groove.
   I've been using most of my studio time the past week getting supplies sorted and organized. I'm always amazed at all the artsy things I've purchased and forgotten. I am loving knowing where all my things are. Plus I've got a big empty space in my studio, meaning I have room to walk and move around without stepping on anything. Well, except for the rug. The paint spattered rug. Maybe it'll be worth some money some day. Until then, I have art to create.

"If I'm Not Wrong"