CONTENTS

And without warning, as the calendar turned over to April, I had a bunch of freshly finished canvases starting to pile up, and the amount of work left to finish on the rest was pretty minimal.  The other night I bought the new Flaming Lips CD, interviewed Chris Chappell and then I showed him my work - all now mostly finished.  It was the first time I showed it off to someone as a whole, and really was one of the first times I've been able to step back and look at it together myself.

I still get a sense of awe when I stand back and look at my new work - not that my ego is that big, just that I was able to conjure up all these images and bring them to fruition.  Chris and I flipped through my work, pointing out good spots and bad, and overall, I feel really good about it.  The work is rather diverse, with imagery picked up from all over the place - my continuing love affair with Arcadia, dirty politicians, mismatched lovers, questions of faith and even the crowds at SXSW.  There's a few curves in the mix, but I feel confident that the show will hold its own, and represents another step in my development.

After Chris left, I listened to the long awaited Flaming Lips CD for the first time.  After the genius of Soft Bulletin and the nice Yoshimi follow-up, At War with the Mystics is a noisy, scattershot, but very good album not unlike their efforts of ten-fifteen years ago.  It has some nice tracks, outrageous noise and sounds, and owes as much to Pink Floyd and Peter Frampton as it does to the Butthole Surfers.  It was a nice night to sit back, ponder the path of the Flaming Lips and look around at my own new work.  Seeing the threads that run through it, the new paths and imagining the next thing are always exciting times. 

I've got a little more work to finish in studio, as well as some writing and show stuff to take care of before 'What if We Could Get it All Back' opens to the public on April 21.  I've always looked at every show I've had as a collection of work from a specific time that encapsulates my thoughts, ideas and techniques.  In many ways its like producing a concept album, with 12-15 new tracks, segueing from one to the next, leaving the viewer with an indelible image in the head and their heart.

I'm past the point of optimistically thinking I'll sell anything to make the time and effort the past four months of full time work pay off financially.  This is Austin, and there are seemingly more people here who come to art openings to drink beer than actually take a look at the art itself.  That puts a painter without a job in a precarious position.  So, all I find I can do is go back to the studio and challenge myself and be more critical about my work.  Openings are fun and important because it exposes the work to other people, which both the work and people desperately need.

That's why I paint, to somehow hopefully present a world outside the viewer that may may them think differently, come to their own conclusions and be left to wander the world a bit more aware of themselves and the situations we all find ourselves in.

The chewable and natural way I've gotten through the past couple of months.