I am calling this new painting, an 18″ by 24″ canvas, Where the Circle Meets. I am thinking of that part of a circle where the beginning starts and the end terminates, doing so constantly and endlessly through cycle after cycle until one is almost indistinguishable from the other. The beginning contains the end and the end contains a beginning.
I tend to think of us going through our lives in this sort of karmic cycle, one where we endlessly loop round and round through days and experiences as we go along. Hopefully, as each cycle comes around we take something from that last turn to make the next one easier and more fulfilling. Perhaps we shed bad intentions and selfishness. Or look away from the dark and toward the light.
And I do see this in this painting. There is a movement from darker to lighter tones as you move into this piece. Around the bend in the stream, the sun hovers above the horizon, bringing light which is shown in the form of pulsing beams of energy.
We live our lives in cycles and with that comes the opportunity to know that each cycle’s ending holds the promise of a new beginning. The trick is in recognizing this and using learned knowledge to make the next one better from the beginning.
I may not be putting this very eloquently this morning. Perhaps I am too tired or my mind is a bit fuzzy this morning. But regardless of that, I hope you’ll take a look and try to see what I am saying with this piece.
This painting is included in my show, Part of the Plan, which opens at the Kada Gallery in Erie, PA on October 29th.
One of the results of doing this blog for so long– over eight years now– is that when real life takes precedence and there’s not enough time or energy to write anything, I feel a real sense of guilt. This has become an entrenched part of my day and to be too busy or distracted with something else leaves me with a bit of an empty feeling, like I’m shirking my duty, even if it is only to myself.
The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
This painting is 8″ by 24″ on canvas and is titled, of course, Watchman. It is coming with me to the Principle Gallery this Saturday, September 17, when I give my Gallery Talk there beginning at 1 PM. There will be a group of new paintings including this piece as well as a group of selected pieces from my studio that will only be available for that day. 
This coming Saturday, September 17, is my annual Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery in Old Town Alexandria, VA. This is my 14th Gallery Talk at the Principle and it’s been a lot of fun through the years. There’s generally a lot of give and take between the audience and myself in the form of questions and comments and something new and unexpected often comes to light. I almost always find myself saying something I didn’t expect to say or learning something new about my own work from the comments from someone at the talk.
I’m sitting in my studio looking at an empty canvas. Not too long ago it was not empty. No, I spent the better part of the afternoon yesterday working on this canvas, a 36″ square that was prepped beforehand with gesso and a first layer of black paint. Several hours spent and not a minute of it felt smooth or in rhythm. The paint didn’t come off the brush in the way that I expected or desired. The composition seemed to just go nowhere ,leaving bland and lifeless bits of nothing littered all over the canvas. I never felt a flow, which is that quality I have described before where one mark leads to the next as though you are reading the lines and strokes on the canvas like they were revelatory tea leaves.
“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said. You might want to think about that.
Redtree Times 