the way out

Second coat of mars black on the larger canvas tonight; temps will stabilize enough for the next 48 hours to prevent any nonsense or issues. 6 more studies, titanium white on mars black. thinking of washes with a sniff of blue or umber to cool or warm and explore this thing that is happening.

process-wise this is a quiet and sublime -almost meditative kind of painting. no apologies for influences; celebrate them, push beyond if i can. and the drip, yes it starts there, then knifed around following the line/form/figure? ghostly associations still resonate....the ghost of what?

kids at my mother's, wife at work slaving away on syllabi for next week and I here cigar and a calm emptiness and a rare open expanse of time before me tonight.

time. as a parent it means something completely different than it once did.

a family wedding prohibits me from making the jet to LA next weekend for the Kingston show and catching my buddy in the studio laying down their new record. but there is now. and i seem to have found something tonight; a way out and a way into. unabashed and on a direct line of painterly legacy. there's something to these and it caught me unaware on my way to other things. but this time I said yes to the detour. ...there's that word again.

i love the times when things like viscosity and surface are all that matter. important things, to be sure. with the reduction of palette to black and white, so many other things become clear. obvious references aside, these owe to a creole of painterly vernacular.

and maybe that can only come through me. there's a thought.