Well depression sets in...

 
I started painting at least partially because of depression. It helped me a great deal. As I've come out of depression I've painted less and also less successfully. I'm going through rather a bad patch recently and I've been painting more and to better effect.

Here's one I like so far. It started out as just a painting but then, on a whim, I added some collage and it helped. Then I played with some shapes and it started to talk to me. It wasn't necessarily a pleasant conversation.

Oh and it's not finished...I don't think.

Tentatively called Depths. Acyrlic and collage on canvasboard. 14" x 18"

State of the Heart released!

My dear friend Maggi Grace has finally seen the release of her wonderful book on her extraordinary "medical tourism" mission to India. It is a moving tale and one that I hope will open some eyes to the reality and politics of health care in the US.

Find info on the book here. You can buy it here or even better at your local independent bookstore.

I attended a standing room only reading and book release Friday and I've included a photo. Find more photos here.

By the way, the art in the background is Maggi's too. She's truly multi-talented.

It's been a long time coming...

Okay, so I'm not posting regularly. That's because virtually everything I've been producing is crap. While I try to turn things around I'll post some pix from my recent long trip to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. I'll start with the amazing sunsets (or as Phillip whose cabin I stayed at calls them: Zen sunsets). Click on the pic to see the whole thing on Flickr. More pictures here.


Oh to be back in 70 degree weather (21 degrees for you Canucks).

Another interpretation of the Haw River storm

I've been stuck again. Nothing works. So I went back to the series on the Haw River storm and made a smaller piece. I like this one. I think the use of dry brush helped define the clouds better than I've achieved before.

Haw River Storm #3. Acrylics on matboard. 13.5" x 10.5"

What life was like

Virtually all of you my age have a personal connection to the tragic loss of a child, whether the child of friends, family or your own. I am a lucky parent but too many friends have lost a child in childbirth or to illness, accident or other tragedy. Each loss has filled me with grief and I can only imagine how parents and siblings must feel.

I thought of this yesterday as I was driving around taking some landscape photos. I stopped at a church on Sax-Beth Church Road just inside the Alamance line in Orange County where Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina are located. I walked over to the old cemetery and began looking at the tombstones.

There is a large family plot for the Pickard family, I suspect the prominent family that owned the land surrounding beautiful Pickard Mountain.


Within the plot, side by side, lay three marble slabs.

The first one reads:

The second reads:

The third:


Three children, all born a decade apart and none lived more than a year. Sigh.