Mostly Crap, But You Never Know, aka The YARD SALE, aka I'm attempting to be a Minimalist.

I have a picture of when I said goodbye to Nashville and moved up to Chicago. It was taken by my aunt in their driveway as I left town. I have on my paint jeans, a nice knit hat, and a sweater of my dad's. My Chevy Cavalier is packed with art supplies and the bare necessities. My worldly possessions fit into a rooftop cargo box from U-Haul.

I've got a ways to go before packing it up and moving it out, but we're interviewing real estate agents this week. The goal is to do all the minor things to make it look nice and have the house on the market in one month. Most of the furniture and STUFF will have to go into storage, so I might as well be ruthless now. We liked the broker we interviewed today. He thought the house had a good vibe, like a Venice bungalow. Curb appeal.

The studio will be in full swing until the last minute. I am getting rid of some stuff in the studio, like the Gamblin box of powdered gesso you make from scratch. NOT seeing that in my future anytime soon. I guess I had a moment where I thought about doing egg tempera, which I did, mind you, but not for long. Probably around the same 3 seconds I thought about mining my own pigments from the earth's core. If someone wants it, let me know. $18 value. I'll trade for some Abstract Expressionist stamps. For real.

Anyway, it's a crazy house over here. After Sunday, I'll see how much of a minimalist I am. I remember reading about a woman who kept her possessions to something insane like 10 or 20 objects. You know, like- couch, pillow, bed, sheet, dress, bowl, spork, shoes, key etc. I will try.

I'm pleased to report I am still a demi-god in the studio according to a couple of works in progress. The dangerous thing is that I'm not finished with these pieces, so it could be a wash, but the important thing is that all kidding and ego-maniacal thinking aside, I'm excited and engaged with the current paintings. I'd like to say, I wish the rest of my life was so pleasurable and exciting, but that would seem counterproductive to the current work, now wouldn't it. Yes, why yes it would. Welcome to one of life's little puzzles.