rhythm

6 x 8, acrylic and ink

It's when I can do it in straight time that I know how to swing it, how to stretch the beat, and play with the elements to make it my own. With music. With painting. Music and art. Wildly different. Strikingly alike.

With these new paintings, I am deliberately missing the downbeat and shifting the rhythms.
Frank Sinatra was a master at it. Here's one of my favorites, "Fly Me to the Moon."

taking stock of 2011

the keepers

the non-keepers

Usually, it's on New Year's Day when I take stock of what I have painted for the year. This year I did it today. Out of the drawers and off of the shelves came all of the 236 paintings I painted this year. Then, one by one, I sorted them into the "keepers" and "non-keepers."

Some of the "keepers" I will frame and put in upcoming shows. Some of them will become launch points for exploring new ideas. Some of them will become "non-keepers" as 2012 unwinds.

What to do with the "non-keepers"? Some of them I throw away. Some of them I wash off and paint over. Some of them I may use in collage or other mixed media pieces in the future. They are my compost heap. They may even generate some warmth and new ideas as I look at them again and mix them up.

2011 ... it's been a very good year, with wonderful moments, and a few weird ones! Hope you can say the same!

This always cracks me up! Maybe it falls in the category of weird moments in a very good year!

But no one does it like Frank. What a voice!