so what is it about paint?? this act we are so involved in... there are numerous considerations, not the least of which is that of the cultural. we are bound to this practice by the hours of those who came so long before us and those that continue on. for better or worse, when we are long long gone, our work remains to mark our trail along the continuum. there are moments of sheer creation and moments of meditation, where we sit and look and look deeper and try to make a sense of it all...

sometimes, out here in the valley, the birds singing and the sound of bamboo in the wind, i have sessions of painting that are so perfect as to perhaps be far too good to be true. indeed, the amount of work painted over would seem to be proof to that. but those times are and have been very very real. the other day, as i was working on a painting on the floor of the studio, i heard a sharp rapping above me. looking up i saw the silouette of a huge crow exploring the leaves on the studio roof for bugs. i just stood there and watched until he grew frustrated with his labors and took off.

that wouldn't happen in brooklyn...

california always gives me ideas and/or evaluations or affirmations. i will be going to black once again... perhaps my flirtations with color have been too much of a figurative journey. it's one thing to see and yet another to replicate. thats what my camera is for... by the same token, i was so taken by the blackened landscape of the north valley hillsides.

in the burnt branches of trees, clinging to a mountain, there is a black so dark that we can't even say it's name.

that might be what i'm looking for...