Last week was a great one in the studio. It seemed as if I had hours and hours that were missing from the weeks before. Time ballooned. As I know from experience when I’m not aware of time, work is going very well. Images are easy to obtain and my self-consciousness is at it’s lowest point. Since I had so much time, I read poetry, pondered the “wormhole”, looked at my own vintage B&W photos; the list is very long.

The monochromatic image is beginning to take on a significance I didn’t expect but welcome. More monotypes and drawings are tumbling forth and the more I work the more I appreciate their achromatic and monochromatic character. Working monochromatically is a challenge and for me very satisfying. The paintings finished earlier in the spring brought me to the composition but I still was in search for something that continued to elude me. Now I’m at least on a good course to discover maybe just a little of the puzzle.

I won’t of course find exactly what it is I seek. But that is part of this process of making art. It is why we do it, right? The book by James Lord, “A Giacometti Portrait”, describes his sitting for Giacometti. This little book says so much to me. Giacometti was the consummate artist who was always in search. He scraped, changed, continually searching for that elusive element he could not quite discover. His drawings are magnificent and capture that discovery process, the sweet and agonizing struggle that is art making.

encaustic gesso, India ink on Arches Cover