I am working, even though I do not know what I'm doing.

The two on the left and the last one on the right are in progress. The one of the far left has been in progress for a couple of months and has already transitioned through life as a pure abstraction referencing nothing, and life as a quasi- referential painting of a stump in the backyard. I had a good painting day on Thursday. I call these dejected abstractions. I trust at some point I will make large happy go lucky light and carefree work, when perhaps I am feeling largely happy lucky go light and free of care, but for now, I am enjoying the muted colors, solitary portraits, or otherwise clandestine meetings going on in this work. Did I mention I had a mouse in my studio? I saw him scamper across the floor and into the wall. This wall. The Wall of Progress. 

The Vexilologists

I don't know exactly where the flags come from but they sneak in every so often. I think of them as markers, a kind of triumphant declaration that I have been somewhere or conquered something, or perhaps they function as a sign that someone was there before me, maybe even me, in a previous incarnation. I finally will call the painting above finished, which means I will remove it from the working studio and place it in the living room viewing studio, which in all likelihood will become the winter working studio.

In progress, not yet titled.

I'm into slanted surfaces now where things could slip. I should post a better pic. I'll swap out later. Speaking of which, I also need to swap out my photos on flickr. They're too lo-res to share. 

I bet you thought I was kidding when I said I was going for the Bazille studio look. If only it worked. 

Note the Bazille studio chair. Fancy, eh? I sat in it the other day and stared at some paintings. Big news: I'd like to welcome my new easel, the Mabef M-09 to the indoor studio. It was on sale at my local Plaza art supply store. I just finished assembling it this evening while making cornbread from scratch in a cast iron skillet. I will now be able to work on small and medium size canvases when I am too much of a wimp to work in the freezing cold. I'm really happy I went with the M-09. I have the M-18 outside in the garage studio and the mast is too high for the ranch house ceilings. The M-09 clears the indoor ceiling by maybe inch. I still need to be careful. I am a big fan of Mabef. The movers bent one of my thumbscrews and Mabef sent over a new one from Italy, pronto. (It was the wrong one, but they're sending another one.) Mabef has a lifetime warranty on their easels and they're better priced than the competition. I should paint that red wall another more neutral color, but on my list of todo, it's just not that big of a deal for me. I need to paint-proof the floor though. I've become a neater painter now that I'm working small, but not that neat. Not that it matters, because for all practical purposes, I am invisible here, but that is another  story.

Oh, and about the movers. I rec'd a call from a detective up in Northern California and apparently one of the movers had my credit card number and my moving contract in his possession. I was not alone. The guy has been arrested on multiple counts of fraud. He was with Lighting Van Lines. It was a no-name van company located out of Northern California. The detective totally sounded like a detective, which ironically made me kind of suspicious. I imagined he was clean cut and wore a suit. He was pleasant though and gave me the task force website so I could double check everything.

Matt emailed me this Albert Oehlen painting from the Museum of Contemporary Art. He said it reminded him of me. Not the deer, I am assuming, but the style in which it is painted.