A couple of revisions...

I posted images of these prints earlier as works-in-progress. I worked on them some more last night, but I am still not sure if they are finished or not. Definitely closer, though.

Some more new stuff...

Here is what I have accomplished since my last post. Sorry the images aren't very high-quality; I shot them in kind of a hurry, and didn't have time to fix them. All of the pieces are 24"x36". A couple still need more work.

Still cranking out work...

It has been like this my entire life: the closer I get to a deadline, the better I do. Yes, I do lose sleep, forget to eat, neglect other important details in my life, and basically become a crazy person (which I often take out unintentionally on the people around me, so please forgive me if that's happened to you), but I also tend to find that the pressure and intensity of focus that occur "at the 11th hour" often brings motivation, clarity, and determination that just aren't there when I have too much time on my hands. (Good conversations with people who care can be really helpful, too - so thanks to all of you who have given me that.) That said, I have been printing as much as possible the past couple of weeks, and I will be toiling away in the studio day and night at every opportunity throughout the next few days. This is the most recent product of those efforts (yes, I know the image is crappy), and I expect to have at least one or two more pieces finished in addition to tweaking a couple of others. I may not be coherent by the next time you see me, but I do think that my project will be decent. I'll pull myself back together in June.

(24"x36")

P.S. Yesterday I ordered the magnets for hanging my work. Yay!

Newer stuff, Part III

Newer stuff, Part II

Some newer stuff... more coming soon.

So many words, so much to say, so little time...

This is the major problem I've been having with this body of work. I always seem to have too many ideas, and there are always an infinite number of possibilities... which makes it really hard for me to make up my mind! I understand that I'm responsible for every conceptual and artistic choice I make, and each will have its own impact upon the success or failure of the work. I feel the need to make these choices with as much insight and intention as I possibly can, in order to serve the work - and in turn let it serve my audience - in the best possible way. Consequently, I have been struggling for weeks to figure out just what I want this work to "say" and how I want it to say it... which will be the driving force for other artistic choices that I will make. I have spent many, many hours reading, thinking, researching, and brainstorming - filling up pages and pages with notes, sketches, and ideas. I have had lots of great conversations with thoughtful people who have offered me valuable insights to think about. And I have scrapped a lot of pretty good stuff along the way to where I am now, which has been really hard for me.

A few days ago, I felt a whole bunch of stuff start to come together for me, and I was feeling really great about this project and what the next developments should/would be. And now - when I had just begun to think that I had finally resolved my major conceptual/content challenges - the critique has made me start to rethink. Everything. Again. (Oh well.)

As David Crystal wrote, "There are always risks when we use words."