slipping from here to there

Today was supposed to happen this past Saturday. I had big plans to get in the studio for most of this long holiday weekend, but I wasn't feeling good and wound up losing out on two of those days. As I like to say, life happens...

It was a different story today altogether. I met up with Jessica Puma for art conversation in my studio. We talked about the new stuff I have in various stages of completion as well as some older works. It's always good to talk with someone about what's going on with the work. I live in my head with it all of the time and it's very difficult to have perspective sometimes.

She took off to meet a friend for lunch and I headed over to Utrecht to pick up a couple of things. I'd had a 20% off coupon from them sitting by my computer for over a month and today was the last day for it to be used. There have been quite a few of those things that I've just forgotten about. I usually find them a month or more past the expiration date under some god-forsaken pile of bills, exhibition invites, and whatever else... I was proud that I even remembered to take it with me. I bought a grinding stone to use with a stick of sumi ink Jessica gave me last week when I was at her studio. I also got a pack of four 'gesso panels' to experiment with, as well as a box of water-soluable paint sicks.



Back in the studio...after painting for a couple of hours, I had one of those moments that I don't notice always, but it happens. I realized that I'd slipped into my working groove for this project, this series of new paintings. Of course I'm worried about finishing everything and wondering if it will live up to my standards, but I'm feeling more in control of the process. The past few weeks I've been fueled more by panic than anything else, because of my late start. Now, though, I'm not panicing as much. Instead, I'm seeing several works begining to take shape, ideas flowing from one to the other and a real dialogue is starting to happen for me.

That wasn't there last week. I had no works that I considered finished, but that's changed this week. Several pieces are getting to the place where more minor changes in details are needed, while I've designated others 'finished'. I'll see how I feel about those in another week or two, but right now I'm ready to leave them be...