Anniversary approaches…

December 18th will be the first anniversary of this blog! Hard to believe that it’s nearly been a year. It’s been a great exercise for me, requiring me to think about what I’ve done each day and sort through it to make sense of the process. I think most days it’s been a cathartic experience that helps to put things to bed and allows my brain to switch off when I’ve written and posted a picture. The pictures have become very important as the blog has increasingly focused on the process of making the paintings, but also as illustrations of daily events. I hope that my students learn from seeing the paintings’ development, and I hope everyone who visits enjoys getting a glance into the life of a studio artist. Thanks for coming! (Keep coming!)

This week has been tiring. I caught a cold, so I don’t feel exactly 100%, and driving down from San Francisco beat me up pretty well. BUT, I’m running most mornings and eating much more healthy sized meals, far smaller than I used to, about a quarter of the portions I used to eat, so I feel far fitter than I used to and I’m losing weight. Rich Brimer and I have a bet that we can beat each other to our target weight. I’m heading for 185 lbs, and he’s shooting for 195. I think I’m ahead right now. The victor gets a bottle of absinthe or single malt scotch from the loser. 

My laptop computer crapped out, both hinges breaking so the screen flapped about. Thank God for the Mac IT support at the University – our Mac guys Amir and Jeff are incredibly helpful and they fixed it up quickly, so now I have no excuse for not getting on with painting Justice’s face and hands today. They think they can rig a monitor up to hang vertically on a stand so that I can hook up the laptop to it instead of turning the computer sideways and putting too much pressure on the hinges. (The horizontal screen isn’t tall enough for a face). This will be fantastic. No more printing pictures, simply plug in, zoom in and paint with the reference right there!