Rekindle

Since October, I am ashamed to say that nothing of terrible importance has happened. I had a surgery. I lived. I'm paying for it. Life is going on. This is the way of the world. Events, when viewed through the lens of hindsight, aren't terribly important.

I've been trying, albeit not very hard, to get this professional art career going for some time. Due to my various self-created road blocks, that has not happened. It's about time that changed. To that end, I'm beginning a new series of portraits. Thanks to the kindness and generosity of my lovely sister-in-law and brother, this morning I opened the shiny two month old copy of Art in America that has been sitting on my desk for the last 3 weeks. I love flipping through art magazines. It reminds me of college. The downside is, the consequences for skipping work and going to the Art Institute when I don't feel like working would be much more dire than they were when I'd skip class to go there. Anyway, to my delight, as I was flipping through the exhibition reviews, I came across Robert Bauer. He's kind of a nobody, which is to say he's kind of like everybody who isn't making millions on a 12"x12" panel. He does what I want to do. Realism has always been a love of mine, mainly because I don't really have the patience to get it absolutely right. I try though, with some mild success. People like Bauer or Lucien Freud and the old masters like Rembrandt, Vermeer, and van Eyck render people so well that it makes me green with envy. They almost create new human beings based on their subjects. That’s what I want to do.

Inspiration is a funny thing. Like fossil fuel, it's rare, expensive, and in extremely short supply. The good news is, I think I've found some. Now all I need are subjects, time, tools, and... and... oh bugger. Well, nothing worth doing was ever done easily. When I get something worth showing, I'll show it.