Open studio thoughts

top (left): Breathing(Again), 2003, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48"
top(right): Inverted Dislocation, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"
bottom left: Blue Field, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 60" x 72"
bottom right: Vertical Blues and Grays, 2003, acrylic on panel, 12" x 12''

My studio set up for the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours.
This past weekend was a good time to pull out some older works along with the couple of newer pieces I had out. I have a lot of paintings in my studio, but I don't often pull much of the older work out to look at. It's one thing to have the images in your mind and another altogether to actually look at the works. I like my paintings having good homes outside of the studio, not to mention being able to sell work, but it's also good to be able to have some right at arm's length to study and simply enjoy from time to time.



Sometimes, I'll look at something I did two, three or five years ago and wonder how I got the results that I did. There are other pieces that I just want to stare at for long periods and transport myself back to when I was working on them. There have been times that I actually forget how something came together. I'll look at a painting of mine and wonder what that artist was up to when he did that piece, as if I were seeing it for the first time. Conversely, other paintings cause me to be transported right back to the moments of the work's creation-I'll remember everything going on around me at the time; a bit of visual and mental time-traveling.