Here it is, almost a month has already flown by. What’s been happening? Seems like nothing, but I swear, in theory, it’s been something.

Maybe nothing today, but I’ve been gearing up for everything. I’m just about to send out my newest newsletter. And I urge you, if you’re not on my mailing list, please join, and if you are on it, please send a friend my way — that is, if you think it’s for them. If not, don’t tell your friends jack. I’m not looking for numbers. I’m looking for people. My people. Since I’ve skipped on a couple of newsletters here, I have a lot to report in the one coming up, so keep your magical under garments on and stay tuned.

I’m going to also write a new blog post on Shrapnel in the San Fernando Valley. That will be about what I’ve done in the last few weeks since finishing the book. My various tasks and plans, as well as frustrations, options, indecisions, and idears that are still up in the air.

Meanwhile, in my “spare time,” I’m trying to get new images into a new database that mjp built specifically for my sketches. I have at least 1,000 drawings, and I imagine it will take over a year to get all of the entries in there. Until then, I still only have this sample page to tide us all over. The new database will have all kinds of goodies I can cross reference on the website if I want, like where the drawing comes from, whether it was a preliminary idea for a later painting, which sketchbook it came from, if it’s a drawing that was especially inscribed in an Artist’s book, and data like that.

There’s more news to come in my newsletter, of course. There’s always something a little different, or a lot different. You never know. And neither do I!

Yesterday, I finally put away all the shit that was on top of my drafting table so I could start setting up my watercolor station. Well, wait a minute; it wasn’t shit at all. It was everything (all the art) cataloged from the flat files that isn’t mine, which is a ton. It takes up three of the largest of these, stuffed full. We were trying to select a grouping of what we’d like to frame and display in the house. It took weeks and it wasn’t easy. A curator’s job is not easy, especially when they have to work with other curators or directors. Remember that.

Once we picked a small grouping of 15 out of roughly 100, I had to put everything back the way they came out of the binders and drawers, and yadda-blahdy-yaddy, my point in saying any of this was to tell you this funny thing. Now it’s not going to be funny. I’m taking too long to get there. Okay, so, by the time I started getting out all my painting tools, I realized that it had been so long since I’ve painted, I started to trip out and forgot what side I kept my palette. My water. I forgot where I kept everything, in fact. I’m not kidding. I started pulling up pictures on my computer trying to find one where I was in the middle of working on  something in the past. I could only find two pictures. I came to find my cornfusion lied in the fact that I seem to mix it up. It seems I scatter all over the table, spreading out the colors and use several different palettes. I suppose that makes sense. I figure, all this wondering is just an excuse not to get started. Laziness. Or something, which isn’t like me, but I guess it is. Here I am.

What a mess in the above pic, right? I was so crammed with shit all over the place, I’m surprised I was even making art like that. I must of had a deadline, but I don’t remember having one with that project. It was when I was working on the Farber/Es book for Chance Press. (collaborative art book with artist Neil Farber). I’ve always been a big fan of Neil’s work. I’d been buying his work previous to doing the book, so I was pretty thrilled.

Well, the new place might not have a view of a garden, but it has pretty good northern light, and there is a hillside above a four foot retaining wall.

I put some potted plants on top of the wall, but I they are all at risk because we have at least a dozen squirrels running around in a given day. They are loud too. There’s always one perched up on a tree stump somewhere chirping like a broken record in a high-pitched frenzy that never seems to stop. The rest of them are super active, eating our avocados, and throwing nuts at the dog. One of them is bound to knock over one of those planters and ruin my beautiful aesthetic on the wall — all the pretty, happy plants in their ceramic pots can come crashing down. I know I should probably just use plastic ones, but these came from my house. And I don’t exactly like the plastic ones.

Yup, it’s risky business. I don’t know why I do that. Come to think of it, I kind of waste time doing little gardening things…wait, no! It’s not a waste. It’s therapy. But I do tend to spend a good amount of time on things like this:

That one is pretty big. I recently made another one, it’s littler. I just finished it when I cleaned up one of the garden beds at six ‘clock this morning. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t wait to do it.

OMG! I am crazy. I almost didn’t post this because there is a rock out of place. Now that I look at it, there are at least three out of place. That really bugs me.

Quickly, I’m over it.

After all that, I think it’s time for a nap. Then, I will get going on some semblance of setting up my painting area. Maybe one day I’ll paint something again. Although, I still have to write a blog post on the other site. Maybe tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…

Stay tuned for my newsletter. I think Tuesday I’ll send her out.

Thanks for playing.