Thirsty, 20x20", oil/canvas

I wish every painting was this much pleasure to make and I ended up with the sense of yes, that's exactly what I was going for.

Once I finish Tornado (Aftermath) I have a few tomato & knife paintings lined up. Thinking about what I want to do for a new series, the concept.

There are several more of the portrait-esque paintings I wanted to try, mostly using images from my modeling days in new contexts, but I don't know if I want to suffer through the ones that are dead ends or don't work. I'm pondering doing a few small studies of them, sort of like 'let's have coffee' instead of 'lets get married!'

There are also a few paintings left over from other series that,  like Thirsty, were either drawn or started or planned, but that I couldn't get done before the show date. There's a whole category - candles in churches - that I wanted to do back at the very start. I ended up doing Table for One instead. I might revisit that, for my own happiness. I've had every gallery owner tell me that religious work doesn't sell, but if ever I was free to follow my bliss, it is now. Actually I don't think of votive candles lit in Catholic churches in Italy as religious. It's about the spiritual impulse to add light to the world, to think of others, to wish for their well being. Something too about aligning with other human beings who have shared that impulse, for generations unto generations.

So maybe it's tomatoes, little portrait studies, and big candles in churches.