standing on the shoulders of giants

i have had a productive few days. several new paintings are either in the works or completed. i bought a stack of small, pre-stretched canvases from my pals at utrecht the other day so i could set up a sort-of assembly line in the studio. i just line up these small (9x12) canvases and work on them consecutively as needed. it allows me the emotional detachment necessary to not fall in love with them too soon. when i paint large it's such a commitment that i get to a point of apoplexy - i have invested so much time and material into the thing that i don't want to "ruin it". these small canvases seem more disposable.

so i have to confess that the engine behind my recent motivation is a little book that steff gave me which contains fifteen reproductions of Howard Hodgkin paintings. in the ten or so years that i have been painting, there have been a few occasions where i see work by someone that completely alters the way i think about painting. my evolution is owed to seeing the work of Matisse, Beckmann, Guston, Soutine, and Basquiat. with Hodgkin it was even more profound. when i saw his work for the first time i felt like it said to me "it's ok". it's ok to paint in this way that i had only thought about, written about, and sometimes dreamt about, but had failed to actually perform. it was liberating.

i realize that right now i'm sort of dealing with a schoolgirl crush on Hodgkin and my paintings are attempts at respectful aping, but once i work through this i will find a new place where the simplicity, reduction, and abstraction that i have long been striving for are incorporated into my conscious process. until then i am just enjoying making these marks!

a painting or a photograph

Last weekend I was cranky and feeling like I had made a series of wrong decisions in my life, or maybe just paid attention to the wrong things, or not done the right things. Like, if I had painted more I would be better, I mean really good. If I read more I would be smarter. If I stuck with yoga my back wouldn't hurt in the morning. Stuff

like that.

Dell said, we better get in the car and go somewhere. So we went to Sauvie Island. And it was drizzling lightly and everything was quiet and beautiful and full of possibilities. So I took some pictures. To make a painting? Or just to be a beautiful record of the lovely world, while I am here to see it.

Maybe I could still be a really good painter, there is so much to say. Although, there is nothing I can say better than the Oregon light on the bare trees in February.

palettes

another example of a used palette that is probably better than my last ten paintings...

The Day After

Are you all feeling as restless as I am today? Full and empty at the same time?

The sky tonight was a blue I have never seen before.

I want to drift in a bowl of blue, in that color blue.

We are jamming.

OK, the big show is hanging at Gallery 114 (1100 NW Glisan - kinda underneath the awesome new guitar shop) and we are all extremely proud. It's looking good - for a bunch of over-40 artists with lives (if I may be so bold and blunt) - the point is, we do what we like, not what we think you'll to like, and we think it shows.

Or something.

I should quit while I'm ahead.

Here's a small selection of new work from me. See it there, Thursday February 3rd from 6 - 9PM. We'll be there.