There had been a poll at some point, yall had asked for more behind-the-scenes things and in the studio stories.
I am very fortunate to have room for a studio, room where i can close the door and leave it a disaster. Very thankful for my studio practice, and that i also have the two blessings of time and space. Many in-progress photos i do not share in real-time because i have this superstition about eyes on unfinished work. They get to see the light now that they’re all done.
The year started with my dad asking me how many works i had made in 2018. No idea. No way to tell. 2019 began the numbering, which i am faithful to, and May 1st saw painting #200 come to completion. It began with wood sized 6”x6” through 9”x9”, inspired surely due to artist Mariah Hope. I got to know her over the course of my first residency in Ellijay, Georgia. Still thinking about my time there and surprised in the unexpected ways it is still helping me along, many months later.
This work was an exhalation, so many thoughts that had been buzzing transferred onto smaller paintings. Figuring, sorting, fighting. That must have been eighty or so paintings. The next superstition i’ve bared in public already: i always sweep and clean my studio after something feels done - usually a big project or say, eighty smaller paintings.
Wompus cat is usually on hand, or in my lap, if she can manage it. She’s getting older and beginning to spend more time thinking about being outside - her spring days have seen her on the porch, a little nervous about venturing much further out. Despite missing her in my daylight studio hours, she still logs time with me up there at night.
Recently i have moved rooms for where i paint, after sprucing up the walls of the studio in the photos. We live in an old house, no central air or heat, and the room i moved into has a working window unit and working fan. You can imagine how an upstairs room might start to heat up in the humidity of a Louisiana summer.
The new room is bare bones, i have spread everything out on the floor, and i sort of work in a circular motion around the room. There are often two to three paintings going on at once, sometimes more.
Nearing painting #220 so far this year, and working towards 100 mules for Finster Fest, close to 60 mules are in the herd. Been anxious to begin making larger paintings again, one has met completion but the other two are stalled in puzzlement.
