Finishing.

I just finished a whole series of paintings for my first solo show with Caldwell Snyder Gallery in San Francisco. Tomorrow I am sending the last 4 paintings to the gallery. I have never painted so much for so long before. There is such a sweetness to finishing something that several moths ago seemed like an impossibility to complete. The struggle that I experienced is offset by the tremendous amount I have learned. It feels more like an improved sensitivity to color, shape, texture, and a quickness of resolution or rather  faster realizations when  I am heading in the wrong direction. My daughter, Lyla, just graduated high school yesterday and at one point in the ceremony the audience’s attention was drawn towards the faculty.  The teachers were all sitting together – all so different from one another in look, dress, teaching styles and of course areas of expertise. I thought how fabulous it would be to have so many people’s influence on my life or art. Instead, my learning, seems to be more about spending a tremendous amount of time alone in a room thinking about and trying to make sense of what I am making directly in front of me. It seems unlikely that learning mostly ( there is usually a dog present) by oneself would actually take place, but remarkably it does. The dog’s name is Maizy and the painting above her is an almost finished commission for a wonderful family in Silicon Valley. The painting is inspired by a box of crayola crayons and their gigantic aquarium filled with tropical fish. The painting will hang in their playroom.