anew

I spent my last day of 2013 in the studio.  Tonight I will drink with good friends and ring in the New Year, safe and stationary for the evening.  Through the magic of the internet, I won't be anywhere near a computer or smartphone when this posts, but I wish everyone a happy 2014.

I'll walk into the studio in the new year ready to do battle.  I know the way ahead, it is clear to me now.

In just over 2 weeks the SAM show will open, and I will see my work hanging in an art museum for the very first time.  I hope this bodes well for the new year, we painters are a suspicious lot.  I remember meeting a fairly famous sculptor back in the Spring at an opening at June Kelly who, finding himself surrounded by a motley crew of painters remarked that painters have to take the hard way.  For sculptors, he said, if it works we go with it.  But you painters have to struggle.  If it comes easy you always reject it.

I suppose that's true.  Knifing those two paintings yesterday was the only option.  I could look at it as 3 months work down the drain or I could see it for what it is; 3 months worth of practice and setting my own bar.  What emerges from destruction is often better than what was before.  In my case, I've never denied the link between creation and destruction.  Indeed, my process is often violent and chaotic to reach the pictures I paint.

I'm glad 2013 is over.  I'm not one for the past.  Today is the greatest day of my life.  This is the greatest time.  My daughters' age now is my favorite age they have been, and this has always been the case.  I can't look ahead too far into the new year.  I have my plots and plans, but in the end I will be where I need to be.  I feel the work is about to go somewhere really powerful and so I want for nothing.

I have a feeling that this series will be accomplished much more quickly than I originally thought.  I can't wait to watch it come together.