I have just experienced my first post-show painting lull. I spent the better part of the last 10 months on the "Marks" show, but once the show was up and the opening over, I felt really indecisive about what to do next. it seemed like a good time to do some new stuff; try some new imagery, work on some different surfaces...step it up a notch if possible.

A Huge thank you to everybody that covered the show this past week. at risk of total overkill, I've posted some of them here if you want to check them out. (this is the last "MARKS" post I promise, I did another shoot this last weekend and will be starting new stuff this week. If people are interested, maybe I'll do another step-by-step series? let me know if you could, they're a lot of work!)

Pictures from the opening are trickling in so I thought I'd post a few. Most of these I poached from the Shooting Gallery blog, so thank you to Kirsten and Dayna!

First off, thank you to everybody that made it out to the "MARKS" opening. The Shooting Gallery was packed for almost 4 hours and it was great to talk to everybody. Special thank you to my family for making the trip from the East Coast and Chicago, and for those that caught flights or drove long distances to be there for the opening. It means more than you could know.

"Marks" opens tonight. I spent all day at the gallery yesterday, hanging the show and painting a bit on the walls. Things look amazing and I'm really excited for the opening tonight. It's a huge relief having all the pieces up on gallery walls, with nice lighting and plenty of room. I'm heading down early today for a little more prep, but here are a few shots of the setup yesterday.

All the paintings for "Marks" are done! I finished oiling out the last one last night, and will be taking it to the gallery still very wet today. 9 of the 11 paintings for the show are already there, and having them out of my apartment after so much prep is odd. I sure do have a lot more room now though.

Last Sunday, I found myself with nothing to paint. I was (and am) still working on one last painting for the show in March, but was held up waiting for a background to dry. I've been on such a painting bender the last few weeks that having nothing pressing to work on, and thus, nothing to distract me from the inevitable depression of Singles Awareness Day (read: vday), was distressing to say the least. so, instead of handling the myriad other things I should be doing, I decided to paint my dumb face again.

I probably don't need to state that some paintings go more smoothly than others. many times, an idea about composition or additional elements in a painting totally work out, and there's a clear "and it's done" point. I love it when this happens... it feels like things are working properly, my brain and my hands are working in tandem and the final product is just that, a final product. I don't think about whether its done or not, what could maybe be added to make it better, etc...it's just done. that said, this is pretty rare for me. I did have a few consecutive paintings a few months back that finished easily, meaning that I didn't second guess them and knit pick them into completion (don't get me wrong, the second guessing works for me too, generally I'm happy with the outcome eventually...but it's certainly a lot less stressful the other way). these days however, as I work on the last 3 for the "Marks" show, not so much. One is going smoothly and is 95% done, the other two however, are a lot more challenging. they both are a lot more stark in composition, with more of a plain dark background to draw the viewer into the figure...or so I hope.

I Spent 4 hours last night painting text...and my wrist is killing me right now. I recently ordered a bunch of dual-language books so I don't have to scour the internet for content so much anymore. I'm really enjoying using the text behind the figure, it gives the pieces a balance that I haven't been able to give them any other way, and adds depth too boot. Now I have Dante's Inferno in the original Italian, a bunch of classic Latin stories from forever ago, and even a book in Russian. The fact that I can't read any of these languages adds just the right amount of distraction from the main figure in my paintings...probably something that wouldn't quite work with english.

I've been doing almost nothing but painting for weeks now. very few social interactions at all, dirty house, neglected work, pending taxes, happy cat, etc. I'm making progress, although I'm working on 3 paintings at a time right now, which means they all seem to be crawling towards completion. unsurprisingly I've decided I may not want to include one or two older ones in the show and instead have nice shiny brand new ones...that are nowhere near done. keep in mind, that in my painting world, "old" is creeping in around the 6 month mark. but a solo show takes almost a year to paint you say? I guess that means i'm improving, in my own head at least.

First off, happy new year. my 2009 was horrible; with the exception of painting, just about everything else totally blew up in my face. After such a bad year (which shall now be referred to as "oh nien"), I was looking forward to this next decade with urgency...and, so far so good.

I recently got my first batch of new prints for "a swan among ducks". they look great, and at 27" x 22", they're the biggest prints I've made so far.This painting was in my show at RedLetter1 last April, and will most likely be included in my show at the Shooting Gallery (although it now lives in Florida with Phil Holt and family). This will be a limited edition of 20 prints, signed and numbered, and they're available now here.

On Saturday, I hit Art Basel at the Miami Convention Center...another world entirely. The place was super crowded and filled with so many galleries that after an hour I was overwhelmed and totally lost. I saw some great stuff there too, but there was a much higher percentage of stuff that just didn't do it for me at all