My studio time is spent mostly looking. Over the years, I've discovered that there is no amount of time too short for going to the studio, -that lack of time is never an excuse not to go. I've had tremendous revelations in "drop-in" moments, when I only had a few moments to see what was going on. I've always painted quickly, so the physical smearing and brushing and staining of paint onto surface doesn't take me that long. Sometimes it has taken me far longer to build and prepare a canvas than to complete the painting itself.

Starkweather (pictured above) is breaking a lot of rules. I pulled out an abandoned canvas from last year and I've been steadily working on it for a couple of months now. Mostly I'm trying not to judge, because there are the voices within that scream "too simple!", "too tame!" or all the other criticisms that I alone level against myself in the solitude of the studio.

I'm building 3 medium-sized canvases and purchasing 3 more pre-built ones which are slightly smaller. There's something going on that I have to explore, but part of me misses the vivacity and frenetic energy of the F&S paintings. Like my personality, perhaps my work will always oscillate between these two expressions...or perhaps I am simply too close to my own work to see the underlying unity.

(for those of you who are at this point wondering...yeah, I never could stay silent long. I'm back)